I'm All In
by linnic
Summary: Suddenly all of the love songs make sense. Will she let the walls crumble? Will Kate finally admit that she is "all in"?  Post Rise, Caskett for sure!
1. Chapter 1: Rise, The Rest of the Story

Author's Note: This first chapter fills in some details from "Rise" as I was playing them out in my head during the ten times I watched the episode. The rest of the story will take place post "Rise".

Disclaimer: Don't own them, just write about them.

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><p>Chapter 1- Rise (The Rest of the Story)<p>

He paces the hospital halls, Josh's words replaying again and again in his mind. He did cause this. How can he live with himself?

"Mr. Beckett?" The doctor had just left Kate in recovery and had come out to speak with the family.

"Yes?"

"Your daughter is out of surgery."

"Will she be alright?"

"During the surgery, she experienced cardiac arrest. Now we were able to get her heart beating again on its own, but we'll need to watch her very closely."

"When can I see her?"

"Well, once the nurses get her settled, we'll bring you back to her. The rest of you, should go home, get some rest."

Castle followed Ryan and Esposito back to the precinct to work on the case. After working several hours, he realized that he had to see her, even if she wasn't conscious. He needed to see with his own eyes that she was still alive. He made his way to the hospital. It was late, there wasn't anyone around and he slipped into her room.

He approached her bed. Gently, he picked up her hand. He sat in the chair next to her bed, leaning his forehead against her hand. He knew she couldn't hear him, in fact he preferred it that way. "Oh Kate. I'm so sorry. I never should have put you in this position." A tear trailed down his right cheek. "I don't know what I would do if I lost you." He sat in the dark silence for minutes, hours, he wasn't really sure. He wasn't the religious type, but he prayed to every God he could come up with. Prayed that she would find her way through this. That they both would, together. With a gentle kiss to her hand, and one to her forehead for good measure, he silently slipped from the room.

As Kate came to, she slowly opened her eyes. She wasn't sure where she was, or what had happened to her. _Think! What's going on?_Flashes of memories started coming back. The shot, her falling, screams, then it went silent. She could only hear Castle... "Stay with me Kate, I love you."

As the memories came back, her breathing became labored, before she knew it the machines began beeping. A team of nurses were at her bedside immediately.

"Kate, Kate. It's ok! You are hooked up to machines but you're ok. Take some deep breaths for me." The nurse was trying to calm her. "Go get Dr. Davidson," she whispered to one of the aides." A few minutes passed as the nurses double checked her vitals and made her more comfortable.

"Kate?"

"Josh?" Her voice was raspy but Josh was so delighted to hear it that he could hardly see straight. Once the nurses finished checking her vitals and situating her, they left the room. During that time, she was partially aware of what was going on, but it was all playing as though it were a movie, not reality.

"Kate, how are you feeling?"

"Terrible," she managed to get out.

"Let's get you off of some of these machines and see if that won't help." He took off a couple of the monitors. "How's that?"

"Better. Can I sit up?" He slowly helped her get into more of an upright position. He leaned over to kiss Kate. Her immediate response was to pull away.

"Kate?"

"I'm sorry, I just..."

"Don't worry, it's ok."

"What happened?" She thought she was putting the memories together to make sense of it, but she wanted someone else to tell her.

"You were at the funeral. A sniper was there too and as you stood giving your speech, a shot rang out. It hit you in the chest, just above the heart. We took you into emergency surgery. After we found the bullet and got the bleeding stopped, we sewed you back up. You've been out of it for the past two days." Now it was making sense. It was all coming back to her. Then, she remembered. She remembered Castle. He told her he loved her. She wanted to say it back, but she couldn't.

"Oh Kate, I love you. I'm so glad you pulled through."

She looked at him. His words sounding foreign. In that moment, she knew. He wasn't the one. He never was. It was _him_. Castle. He was it, the one. When he last moments flashed before her eyes, she didn't see Josh, she saw _him_.

"Josh, we need to talk."

"I know, but right now, you need to rest."

"No, I need to say this to you. I like you Josh, I really like you. But...it isn't...enough.". Her speech was slow. She winced in pain with each word.

"What do you mean it isn't enough? I think your pain meds are messing with you."

"No, I've known this for a while now, for a long while actually. I just couldn't face it. I like you, I do, but it's not enough."

He could tell she was exhausted. She just needed some sleep. "This is about Castle, isn't it? You do realize he is the one who put you here. I'm the one who FIXED you. HE put you here."

She closed her eyes, gathering her strength. She wanted nothing more than to succumb to sleep, but she had to do this. She had to do it now. "No, this isn't about Castle. It's about me."

Josh just shook his head. He knew what she said was the truth. He knew it from the beginning, but he had always held out the hope that since she chose him, that she had CHOSEN him. He knew though. It wasn't a choice for her, she and Castle just ARE, it isn't about choice.

He wanted to fight, but he couldn't put her through that, not now. Instead, he decided to make her smile. "Here, I bought this for you. I know that it may be wrong now, but I still want you to have it." He pulled out a small charm bracelet and wrapped it around her wrist. "This bracelet looks good on you, its not diamonds or anything." He said with a smile. She smiled in return. He could see the appreciation in her eyes, but knew it wasn't enough.

Suddenly the door opened. Castle walked in. "Hey Castle." with those words, the look on her face, he knee. In a heartbeat, Josh knew it was over. He didn't dare create a scene. Not here, not now. Instead, he stood, relinquishing his place next to Kate, both physically and emotionally. "I'll see you after rounds." He gave her one final goodbye kiss, and left the room.

"Hey." Castle wasn't sure what to say. In reality he wanted to run to her, take her in his arms.

"You're staring at me, I must look really bad," she replied sheepishly.

"No, I just never thought I'd see you again." He was getting too serious too soon. He had to lighten the mood a bit. "I heard you were opening a flower store so I thought I'd pitch in."

She grinned as he took the seat the had previously held Josh. "They were all here when I woke up. I think they're mostly from the precinct. I don't think I'm going to live this one down Castle."

"Oh, probably not." An awkward silence lingered for a few seconds. Neither of them wanting to say what they should.

"I hear that you tried to save me."

"Yeah, I uh... you heard?" Castle stopped. "You don't remember me tackling you?" He held his breath. He realized the implications of this. He had hoped she would remember his confession to her. Had hoped she knew how deeply he felt. Hope she could admit she felt that way too.

"No. I don't remember much of anything." How can she do this to him? She knows that he loves her, she knows she loves him too. Here she is telling a bold faced lie, why is she determined to ruin this before it even starts?. " I uh... remember I was uh... on the podium and then I remember everything just going black."

Shock pulsed through him. He could barely formulate a response. "You don't remember the gunshot?"

"No." She sees the look in his eyes and can't bare to look at him. "They say there are some things that are better not being remembered." She knows she'll never forget his words, but she can't deal with them now.

"Yeah."

He's aware their conversation continued. He even managed to respond appropriately, but his mind had stopped when she said she didn't remember.

"Castle, I'm really tired right now." She couldn't see him looking like this anymore. She had to bring the conversation to a close.

"Of course, of course we'll talk tomorrow," he replied, hoping by then he could gather his thoughts.

"Do you mind if we don't? I just need a little bit of time."

Is she trying to kill him? _No, no time. We need to talk now. _He knew he couldn't say that though. "Sure how much time?"

"I'll call you, ok?"

"Sure." He says as he quickly exits the room with little more than a glance backwards.

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><p>AN: This is my first Castle fanfic, so please be kind :)


	2. Chapter 2: Fight or Flight

AN: This chapter picks the story line up after Rise, about 5-6 months after Kate's shooting.

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><p>Chapter 2- Fight or Flight<p>

A couple of months had passed since Beckett returned to the precinct. Things had never quite returned to normal. She had taken on an even more serious tone. Castle tried to keep up his demeanor of jokes and laughter, but everyone could tell it was a show more than anything.

"It's been a rough day. Let's all head out to The Haunt for a couple drinks," Castle announced to the team as everyone began packing up for the night. They had managed to finally find their killer. It had been a tough case, stretching out for a couple of weeks, but after today's take-down, interrogation, confession, and booking, they were all spent.

"I'm in," Ryan replied.

"Let me call Lanie, I'm sure we'd both like that," replied Esposito as he walked off to make the call.

"I don't know guys, I'm pretty beat." No one was too surprised with Beckett's response. She had tried her hardest to avoid getting personal with anyone lately. Her sole focus was work, and a night out could lead her to let her guard down.

"Oh no, girlie! You will be coming with us," replied Lanie as she approached and wrapped her arm around Kate's shoulder.

"What timing, I was just trying to call you," Esposito said giving her a quick peck on the cheek.

"Oh, I saw the number pop up but was around the corner, so didn't bother answering."

Lanie and Esposito took off together, announcing that they would meet everyone there. Ryan had to make a quick stop first. That left Castle and Beckett, in an awkward silence.

"Come on, I'll flag a cab for us." He saw the look in her eye. "I won't bite, you know." She followed him out. Unsure of why she was doing this. She had spent the past few months intentionally keeping him at a distance. She wasn't trying to push him away completely, but she did want to make sure he didn't stay too close. She knew his feelings for her, but she couldn't reciprocate them yet. She didn't want to string him along, so instead she pulled away from him, from everyone really.

Nearly everyone was enjoying the time. They didn't all get out much in a social setting, so nights like this were a welcome reprieve. Lanie and Esposito were tearing up the new dance floor. Ryan and a couple of other guys from the 12th were over playing pool. Then there was Castle and Beckett. The silence between them had been awkward all night. It was almost a test of who was more stubborn, too bad that if either of them won this 'contest' they both ended up losing.

As Beckett finished her second drink, she knew she needed to call it a night. If she had more to drink then she might say things that she shouldn't. "I should be heading home now Castle."

"No, please, stay for a while, please." He knew that adding the second please might show his desperation, but with the few drinks he'd had, he didn't care as much. He had sat here enduring the silence off and on for the past two hours.

"Castle...I..." with the pause she grabbed her coat. "I can't." With that she turned and walked out, it was more like she flew out. She was running away. It was a 'fight or flight' moment and she just wasn't sure she had any fight left after the day they had.

From across the dance floor, Lanie and Esposito were watching. Lanie made a move to follow Kate. Esposito saw Castle follow and held Lanie back. "Wait, let him. He's the one she needs right now."

"I know." She laid her head back on his shoulder. They both let out a heavy sigh. The dance between Castle and Beckett had gone on for nearly 4 years now. They had kissed- true it was in the name of 'police business,' but a kiss was a kiss. They had fought and made up, more times than anyone could count. They had laughed and cried together. They had nearly died in each others' arms too many times.

The dance had taken on a different tune since Kate's shooting. They were both desperate for each other. If he pushed, she backed away. If he backed away, she lured him in. Each one of their close friends and family members had tried to open their eyes, but Kate (more so than Rick) fought against the inevitable tide.

By the time Castle caught up to her along the street, she was trying in vain to hail a cab. The rain had started pouring since they had been inside, and her frail attempt to shield the rain with her jacket was failing miserably.

"Kate, wait!" He yelled as he approached her. He gently grabbed her arm to turn her around. "Why are you running again?"

"I'm not running. I need to get home."

"You ARE running, and hiding. You have done everything in your power to avoid talking to me for the past few weeks."

"I HAVE talked to you," she shouted back, almost taken aback.

"Yeah, about cases. But that's it. You haven't once mentioned what has happened in the past few months. You haven't talked about the shooting or your mom's case. You're avoiding everyone."

"I have nothing to say about those things. They are.. they are in the past, ok? I'm over it."

"Over it? Ha! You are not over it. You have shoved it down somewhere deep within yourself. You've used it to reinforce the wall that you say you want to tear down. You are shutting me out Kate. What gives?" Tempers are flaring. The words each are throwing are stinging.

"'What gives?' What do you mean 'what gives?' I don't owe you anything, Castle! Did it ever occur to you that I don't have to share things with you?" She could say more. Throw in that they weren't _real_partners, but she knew those words would cut too deep.

"Oh, so that's how you want to play things now?" By this point, their voices were in the midst of a shouting match. "You want to run, hide, pretend that no one cares? I care!" He paused, hoping that his words would cut through to her. "Damnit Kate, I CARE! That night...God I wished you could just remember!"

"Look Castle," her tone leveling out a bit. "Just...leave me alone! Why can't I have space?"

"I have given you space. I gave you three months of space. While you had your space I was in HELL. Third hand reports of how you were doing were all I had. That and the memory of you dying in my arms. Do you know what that did to me? I understand you have your walls. I understand that they protect you. What is it that I have to do to convince you that you don't have to protect yourself from me?"

She took a deep breath. _Is this the time? Do I tell him now? _The words came out as barely more than a whisper. "I do remember, Castle. I heard you, OK? I heard what you said." Her words weren't clicking with him. He blankly stares at her. "You told me that you love me. I heard you, I remember, but I couldn't...can't face it yet. I told you, I have to tear down these walls before I can be any good to you. I have to find out who killed my mother before I can be who you want me to be." As she stood there, rain pouring down, tears falling from her eyes, she allowed a brief moment in which she lost herself in his eyes. The moment was fleeting, but volumes of unspoken words were exchanged.

In a quieter, more tender tone, he pulled her into his embrace. "Kate, you heard me? You remember?"

"Yes, I do." It was barely a whisper. She had given up the fight.

"Why? Why did you lie to me?"

"Because I knew I couldn't say it back. I thought it would be easier to make you think that I hadn't heard than to tell you..."

"When I said I loved you that day, as you lay dying in my hands...I can't tell you what that did to me." A tear fell down his cheek. "I know you can't say it back, I know that." He held her as the rain washed the anger away. "But I also know that you feel it. You may want to deny it with everything in you, but you feel it, you're just afraid of getting hurt." He held her away from him so that he could look in her eyes. So that she could look into his. He gently shook her, wanting her to understand his next words. "I don't need you to be something different for me. This whole 'I can't be who you want me to be' is nonsense. I want you to be you. The you that I fell in love with over these years. You don't need to be anything else. I'm not going anywhere Kate. You are not in this alone."

She couldn't reply. They were lost in each others eyes. They stood there, in the rain holding each other as time ticked by. Finally, in silence Castle hailed a cab. He opened the door for Kate allowed her to get in and he climbed in beside her. He gave the address of her building. The cab left with two silent passengers in the back. There was a change though. While they remained silent, it was no longer an awkward silence. They had fought one last battle in the war. The walls were slowly crumbling.

When they arrived at Kate's place, Kate climbed out as Castle paid the driver. He ushered her to her apartment. They entered her place, still no words were exchanged. He settled her onto the couch, brought her a cup of tea, covered her with a blanket, and kissed her on the forehead. He turned to leave and heard the faintest sound.

"Stay." It was a single word, a plea really. He wasn't even sure at first whether he had dreamed it. "Please Castle, stay."

His response came in the form of a single word. "Forever." He walked back to the couch, took off his shoes and sat beside her. He lifted his right arm and rested it upon her shoulder. She snuggled into him, resting her head on his chest. Time passed- minutes, hours, neither were sure. She listened to the beating of his heart. He listened to the rhythm of her breaths. A content stillness took over the night and neither of them dared to break the magical spell that seemed to have been cast.

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><p>Please Review :)<p> 


	3. Chapter 3: Waking

Disclaimer: I don't own them :(

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><p>Chapter 3- Waking<p>

As the morning light poured in, Kate opened her eyes, acutely aware that she was on the couch, her head on Castle. _What had she done?_

Castle felt the change in her breathing pattern. He stayed still and could feel the tension in her body mounting. He knew that this could very well send her into a panic.

"Shhh..."

She jumped at the sound. "I didn't say anything," she responded, perplexed.

"Not aloud, but I could hear your mind screaming. Just relax."

"Relax? We need to talk," she insisted as she sat upright, turning to look at him.

He knew that was coming. It was too early, he was too groggy, but he knew that to protest would be futile. So he sat up, stretching and yawning as he did so. He started to reply, but she started before he could.

"This doesn't change anything Castle." Although she knew it did. She tried to rebuild the wall, to reinforce it with everything she could, but she knew it was crumbling and that there wasn't much she could do about it. She sighed. There were a million things floating around in her head and she didn't even know where to begin. "I...We...You..." She became more flustered by the moment.

"Slow down there, Kate."

She took another deep breath. "Castle, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have lied. This whole thing, you...me... it scares me."

"What is it that scares you so much? It's not like you've never been in a relationship before."

"True, but I've never...had so much to lose before either. You are my friend, my partner. When you first came, I couldn't stop thinking about how to get rid of you. Somewhere along the way though, things changed. I don't know when for sure, but at some point, I found that I needed you to be there." She stood up and began pacing the room. She couldn't look at him right now.

"I've lost all of the people I have ever needed. After my mom's murder, I lost my dad too. Lost him to grief for years. He may be back now, but it isn't the same. I don't want to need you Castle. Needing people, only leads to having your heart broken." Suddenly her voice sounded so small, so fragile. "Somewhere along the line I realized I needed you. That scares me more than anything else." She gazed out the window, trying to maintain her composure. She knew she couldn't turn to look at him.

"You are not going to lose me Kate. I could have left your side at any point over the past few years. I had enough research for my books within the first month or two. Something compelled me to stay and it wasn't Esposito, Ryan, or Montgomery. It surely wasn't my mother or Alexis, as they tried numerous times to convince me to stop playing detective. It was you Kate." He got up and slowly walked up behind her. He reached out his right hand and rested it on her left shoulder. She turned, slightly startled at the touch. He could see the unshed tears forming in her eyes.

They stood in silence for a few moments. "Rick," she turned to face him. "What if we ruin what we already have?"

"What if we don't? What if we find a whole new level of us? Look, I know you're a cop and that you are trained to be as pessimistic as possible, but there are so many ways a story can go. This writer prefers to think about all of the happy endings that await us. Are you willing to give up your chance of finding true happiness because things might not work out? Are you going to cave in to that fear?" He paused, letting his words be a seed planted in her mind. "Kate, I have watched you stare down some of the toughest criminals. I have watched you stare down the barrel of a gun, keep your cool and walk out of a deadly situation without a scratch. You don't give in to fear, please, don't do it now."

She returned her stare to the window. Letting his words sink in. He was right, she never gives in to fear. Even with her life on the line, she never gives in. She turns back to him, stepping closer, their eyes locked on one another. "Ok."

"Ok?" He asked. That wasn't quite what he expected.

"You're right, I've been letting fear get in the way. I'm not going to guarantee anything..."

"I don't need a guarantee Kate, I just want you to give us a shot."

"I promise, I will try. Look, it's getting late and I need to get into the precinct." He gave her a look, not sure if this was her pushing him away again, or if she really needed to go. She saw the look and knew what was going through his mind. "I'm not pushing you away, but I do need to go in to work. Why don't you head home and change and meet me there."

"Ok, I will see you after bit, and I'll bring the coffee." He looked at her for a long moment. He wanted to kiss her, but didn't want to push too hard. He gave her a peck on the cheek.

As Castle walked into the precinct, he saw her sitting at her desk working on a mountain of paperwork. He had to smile, he had always loved watching her work, but today it was even better.

"Hey Castle!" Esposito hollered across the room.

Kate stopped and looked up only to see him walked into the room. He slipped her coffee onto her desk in front of her, giving her a wink, and turned to Esposito.

"Hey!" He then sat down in the chair next to her. The precinct seemed to be pretty slow today. Most of the members of the 12th were at their desks working on paperwork. "Slow morning?" he asked, catching her off guard.

"Slow? Wha..oh, here, slow here in the precinct? Um, yeah, kinda nice for a change." She finally managed to stop sounding like a stuttering idiot.

They spent much of the morning, going through the paperwork, and chatting. The hours passed rather slowly. By two o'clock, Castle was tired of the low key day.

"Hey, Kate, I think I'm going to head out. I'd like to take you out tonight though. I know tomorrow is your day off, so we can have a nice evening out. What do you say?"

"Sounds lovely," she responded quietly with a shy smile.

"I will be by to pick you up at five thirty? I'm thinking a night at the theater followed by a romantic dinner?"

"Can't wait, I'll see you at five thirty." With a wink he left the precinct. He was immediately on the phone, scoring box seats to see Phantom of the Opera. Thank goodness that he knew people, scoring last minute tickets was never easy. He also made reservations for L'amore E Il Vino. All complete before he made it home. He began to clean up and prepare for the evening.

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><p>AN: I hope you enjoyed the chapter. The next one is my favorite part of the story- so far. Please Review, it helps the creative juices flow :)


	4. Chapter 4: Dancing

A/N: Having never been to New York, writing within that setting is difficult. I tried to research locations, names of streets and buildings, etc, so I hope I came close with those details. The restaurant is fictional, as I couldn't find a place that worked for me through my research. I am trying to maintain integrity to Kate and Castle's characters, but considering that dating is an avoided issue on the show, I may be too far out on a limb? I hope not. Thanks for all of the reviews! Please keep them coming!

Disclaimer: As always, not mine.

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><p>Chapter 4- Dancing<p>

Kate tried to work longer, her mind kept drifting to the night ahead. She decided to leave early and stop by one of the few little boutiques that she frequented to find a new dress for the evening. She knew Castle and knew that he would go all out on tonight. She found a lovely "little black dress" and some great black pumps to go with it. She then stopped at the salon for a quick up do and a nail makeover. She felt so nervous, it was like prom night all over again.

She was just putting on the final touches to her makeup when she heard Castle at the door. She grabbed her shawl and purse and went to the door. She took a deep breath and opened the door.

She looked stunning, so much so that it took his breath away. "Wow, Kate, you look amazing!"

"Thanks Castle! You don't look half bad yourself." He extended his arm and she took it, turning to lock the door behind her. They walked arm in arm out of the building down to the black Towncar he had arranged.

He opened the car door for her. "After you," he stated as he motioned for her to get into the car.

"So, what's the plan for the evening?" She asked after they had both settled into the car.

"Well, I thought we'd go see Phantom of the Opera, my all time favorite show. Then head to a nice, low key, quiet dinner at L'amore E Il Vino."

She smiled, this would be an unforgettable night in so many ways. They proceeded to the Majestic, chatting about the day on the way. When they entered the theater she was pleasantly surprised to find out that he had gotten them box seats, in fact, it appeared that he might have rented out the entire box, for they were alone throughout the show. The box seats were such a treat. The view was incredible. She managed to snuggle into Rick as the evening progressed. They were both caught up in the moment. He managed to see some of the show, but he was far more interested in watching her.

As the intermission began, Kate excused herself to the restroom. She looked in the mirror and smiled. She hadn't felt this content in so long. She tried to stop smiling and found that she couldn't. She kept wondering why she had put this off for so long. How many nights like this had she given up out of fear? She knew that she no longer had anything to fear. This night was going to be the beginning of something incredible. She fixed her hair and makeup and headed back into the theater.

"Wow, Castle, this is show is so amazing. I'm really enjoying myself tonight," she announced as she returned.

"I'm so glad to hear that. I've always found this show to be quite magical." There was a moment of slightly awkward silence as an unasked question hung in the air. "Kate, I have never been more nervous, and yet, so comfortable and happy. I just want to know up front, what are the ground rules for the evening?"

_Ground rules?_She looked at him perplexed. "You mean how far am I willing to go with you?" Is he really asking her this? "Is this high school? Are you asking what base I will let you get to?"

"No, that's not what I mean." He was a bit exasperated. That's not how he meant it to come out at all. "I just don't want you to feel uncomfortable if I hold you hand or kiss you goodnight."

She knew now that what he really wanted was permission to turn this into a real date. "I'm your date for the evening Castle. I know you have been on more than a few first dates. How is this any different? I'm sure you didn't ask those ladies the same question."

"No, I didn't. You are right, I have been on numerous first dates. None of them can hold a candle to tonight though. I love you Kate." He saw the defensive look in her eye. "Now wait, I know you aren't ready to say that back, and I understand. You can say it whenever you are ready to, but I need you to hear me say it. I love you Kate. I don't want to do anything, anything at all to jeopardize this."

She didn't really know how to respond, so instead, she leaned forward and kissed him. It was a sweet gentle kiss, and he responded with tenderness. He slowly coaxed her mouth open, and little by little the kiss deepened. As the theater grew dark they pulled back from each other. Neither said anything, for the music had begun, but the he found her hand and squeezed it. She squeezed back and settled back in for the show, the smile still gleaming on her face.

As the show continued, she closed her eyes, enjoying the melodies from the show. The whole evening was warming her in places she didn't realize had grown so cold. She never wanted the night to end. Unfortunately, the show can't go on forever, and as it came to an end, she looked over at Castle.

"I hope you enjoyed the show?" He asked.

"You have no idea. This evening has been so perfect." They made their way through the crowd to the front of the theater.

"It's a short walk to the restaurant, unless you would prefer to ride?"

"A quiet stroll would be lovely." He wrapped his arm around her shoulder, she wrapped hers around his waist. They set off for the short walk to L'amore E Il Vino. Upon their arrival, they were ushered to a small quiet room in the middle of the basement cellar. There was a bench seat for two and a lovely table adorned with roses. The entire room was lit only by candlelight, soft music playing in the background

The host ushered them to the bench. She sat down and he settled in beside her. There were already two glasses of wine ready for them, as well as a plate of cheese cubes and grapes. "Your food will be along shortly," the host announced.

"I've never heard of this place before," she said as she sipped the glass of wine.

"A friend of mine opened this a few months back. It's not overly fancy, pretty simple, yet delicious Italian. I love this room, so quiet and secluded." His voice took on a rather sultry tone. He brought a grape to her mouth, as she took it, he continued. "I went ahead and told the chef to surprise us with his specialty for dinner, I hope that's ok?"

"That's fine Castle. This whole evening is...well it is just what I imagined Richard Castle would do."

He held up his glass. "To new beginnings," he said.

"To us," she replied, much to his surprise.

The waiter approached the table with a single plate of food. To whet your appetite, we have Bruschette Pomodore. Enjoy!"

"Castle this is delicious, who knew something so simple..."

"The simple things in life usually are the best." He couldn't help but give her a sly grin as he spoke.

They continued through their meal. Talking about the wonderful show they had seen, talking about anything that came to mind. As they finished their meal, Just A Kiss by Lady Antebellum was softly playing in the background.

"Would you care to dance?" He asked, extending his hand to her.

_Lyin' here with you so close to me_

_It's hard to fight these feelings when it feels so hard to breathe_

_Caught up in this moment_

_Caught up in your smile_

They danced slow and close, her head resting in his chest, his lips next to her ear.

_I've never opened up to anyone_

_So hard to hold back when I'm holding you in my arms_

_We don't need to rush this_

_Let's just take this slow_

He began to hum along with the tune. The words of the song saying everything neither of them could express.

_Just a kiss on your lips in the moonlight_

_Just a touch in the fire burning so bright_

_And I don't want to mess this thing up_

_I don't want to push too far_

_Just a shot in the dark that you just might_

_Be the one I've been waiting for my whole life_

_So baby I'm alright, with just a kiss goodnight_

She looked up and kissed him. She knew that this was what she wanted, what she needed. And not just for the night, but for every night from this point forward. As they swayed in rhythm to the music she made up her mind that she would pursue this relationship just as hard as she had pursued her mother's case.

_I know that if we give this a little time_

_It will only bring us closer to the love we wanna find_

_It's never felt so real, no it's never felt so right_

_Just a kiss on your lips in the moonlight_

_Just a touch in the fire burning so bright_

_And I don't want to mess this thing up_

_I don't want to push too far_

_Just a shot in the dark that you just might_

_Be the one I've been waiting for my whole life_

_So baby I'm alright, with just a kiss goodnight_

_No I don't want to say goodnight_

_I know it's time to leave, but you'll be in my dreams_

_Tonight, Tonight, Tonight_

"You know Rick, the words of this song suddenly make so much sense." He smiled, because he knew that this was her way of confirming that she was just as in love with him as he was with her.

_Just a kiss on your lips in the moonlight_

_Just a touch in the fire burning so bright_

_And I don't want to mess this thing up_

_I don't want to push too far_

_Just a shot in the dark that you just might_

_Be the one I've been waiting for my whole life_

_So baby I'm alright, oh, let's do this right, with just a kiss goodnight_

_With a kiss goodnight_

_Kiss goodnight_

The music ended, but neither of them pulled away. "As much as I hate to see this evening come to an end, I think they might kick us out Castle."

He checked his watch, and noting that it was nearing midnight, he knew they should probably go. Before releasing her from his arms, he leaned in for a kiss. The passion that had built during the song came out in that kiss. They both felt a monumental shift within their souls, both of them knew that they had come to a point of no return. Their hearts were fully open to one another.

He had paged the driver as they gathered themselves and headed upstairs. The driver was waiting for them just outside of the Winery by the time they left the building. They sat in silence on the ride back to her place. It was a comfortable silence, one in which she was snuggled into his arms, they were savoring every moment.

When they arrived at the apartment, Castle leaned in to the driver telling him something which she couldn't make out. He escorted her into the building, walking her to the door.

"Kate, I have had a lovely time. Thank you so much."

"I should be the one thanking you. I've had the nicest evening since...well I can't honestly remember. Would you like to come in?"

He had been planning to come in, in fact, he had just told the driver that if he didn't return within ten minutes, to go ahead and leave. Now though, as he reflected on the song they had just dance to, he thought a kiss goodnight would be best, for now.

"Kate, as much as I want to come in, and boy do I ever. I think it would be better if I didn't." He saw the disappointed look in her eye and the slight pout of her lip. His voice softened, he brushed against her cheek. "Hey, don't do that. Tonight was...magical. I don't want to break the spell. I don't want to push you too hard. I want us to work, and I'm afraid that if I come in, I'll stay, and I don't want there to be any regrets."

"I understand." She did understand, she knew he was right. "Do I at least get a kiss?" She said, almost embarrassed for asking.

He answered with a tender goodnight kiss which left her only wanting more. "I will see you in the morning Kate."

"Goodnight Castle."

He left without turning to look back, for he knew that one glance back would weaken his willpower.

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><p>I've had so many lovely reviews, but a girl can never have too many :)<p> 


	5. Chapter 5: Kids Again

A/N: I have not been to Coney Island, and so I hope that the limited descriptions I gave work.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything, sad as it is :(

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><p>Chapter 5- Kids Again<p>

"Beckett," she said into her phone, barely awake.

"Good morning Kate. I hope you slept well?"

"Castle, what in the hell are you doing calling me this early on my day off?" As the words tumbled from her mouth, she remembered that her dream hadn't really been a dream. They had gone out, she had had the most wonderful night of her life.

"Well aren't we just perky in the morning?" He chuckled because he could just see the look on her face. "I can tell you just woke up, so I will give you some time to wake up and shower before I come over."

"Come over?"

"It is almost ten o'clock, I will be by at ten-thirty." With that he hung up the phone, leaving her hanging. _He better have a damn good excuse for coming over. I can't believe he woke me up and then demanded I get ready for him to come over. _

After her shower, she felt better, still irritated, but better. She had just finished dressing and putting her hair up when there was a knock at the door.

"Peace offering?" He said as she opened the door, a bouquet of tulips in his hand.

She couldn't help but smile. "Thank you! Now, what are you doing here?" She asked, pretending to be more angry than she was. In truth, she was thrilled that he was there.

"Honestly? I just needed to see you, to make sure that last night was real." He leaned in for a kiss. A kiss that weakened her to the bone, the kind that made you forget your own name.

"Well, I guess NOW, I'm glad you came by." She couldn't hide the ornery grin on her face. She closed the door and pulled a vase from under the sink, filling it with water and arranging the flowers.

"I was hoping we could hang out together today. Alexis and my mother are both gone, writing was happening when all I could think about was you." She blushed at that statement. "So, I figured that I would see if you were available."

"Luckily for you," _and me, _she thought, "I don't have plans. And, I would love to spend the day together. First I would like to talk though."

They walked over to the couch taking seats on opposite ends so that they could look at each other. "I really did have a great time last night."

"So did I."

"I think I would have to say that there were two moments that stood out more than any other. The first was when we were dancing. That song really got me to thinking." She stood and went to the window. "I have fought my feelings for you for far too long. I tried to tell you a couple of times, something always interrupted. I realized last night that by holding back, I have cost us time together." He walked over to join her at the window. "I of all people should know how precious life is. I learned that lesson far too early in life. Then fate decided I needed a reminder a few months ago in the form of a bullet to the heart." Her hand instinctively moved to her scar. He flashed back to the moment when she collapsed into his arms, bleeding from the chest, dying as he cradled her. Tears came to his eyes as they always did with the memory of that day.

"I'm so sorry Rick. I never should have lied to you. You put your feelings out there, and I led you to believe that I never heard you."

He turned her to face him. "Kate, you don't need to apologize. I know all about where we've been, the time we may have lost. I don't care about any of that. It's over. I care about every moment from here on out."

"I love you, Rick." He pulled her into a hug, needing to feel the warmth of her body, needing to know that this was real. The words, the openness coming from her were so 'un-Kate like.' She relaxed into his arms, knowing she had to get everything out in the open. "More than that, I'm so _in_ love with you. I can't imagine my life without you in it. Which brings me to that second moment that stood out to me. Last night at my door, I know why you left before coming in and I do understand. We both needed time to think through the evening."

"Truthfully, I can't think of anything else. The feeling of holding you as we danced, well, let's just say I won't forget last night, ever!"

"Look, I have asked for space so many times from you. I'm sure that you are just as scared to mess things up as I am. I appreciate the respect and restraint you showed last night, but after four years of being together without officially being together, I'm don't want to take up any more time. I'm not saying that I am ready to put us out there for everyone to see, as I know I'm not ready for the precinct to know, but in order to make this work, neither of us can hold back. We have to be 'all in.'"

"Kate, I'm as 'all in' as it gets! So, what should we do today?"

"I'm up for anything," she replied.

"I'm in the mood for fun, that work for you."

"What is it you have up your sleeve Castle?"

"Coney Island."

Kate laughed. "So first date, we have this wonderfully romantic date. Second date, Coney Island?"

"What's wrong with Coney Island?"

"Nothing, if we were a couple of kids. Wait a minute, I forgot who I was talking to; one of the biggest kids around." She said, giving him a light smack to the chest. "As crazy as it sounds- and believe me, it's crazy- I think it would be fun."

"Ahhh, so Ms. Katherine Beckett does have a fun, childish side?"

"Guess you'll be finding out," she said with an ornery grin. She grabbed her gun, badge, and ID, forgoing a purse or jacket. "Let's go!"

They spent the remainder of the day riding rides, eating popcorn and hotdogs, and playing those crazy carnival games. They both left with a huge smile, Kate carrying a stuffed teddy bear that was nearly as tall as she was. She couldn't remember a time when she felt more carefree than she had today.

"What a fun day!"

"I've brought Alexis here so many times. We always have a blast! I must say though, seeing your playful kid side made this one of the most memorable trips yet!"

"I'll never forget the look on your face as we came of the first hill of that rollercoaster."

"Yeah, well, roller coasters have never been at the top of my fun list. I was so glad when Alexis was finally old enough to ride alone." Kate laughed, she never would have guessed that he was a chicken on a roller coaster.

As they arrived back at her apartment, he turned to look at her. "I don't want to cut our time short, but I need to head home. I promised Alexis that I'd be home for dinner, and I want to talk to her about our situation."

"Of course. I have a few things I need to get done before the real world beckons tomorrow. See you at the precinct?"

"Absolutely! I'll bring breakfast." They gave each other long lingering kiss, then he headed home, trying to figure out how to share this with Alexis.

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><p>Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Please take a quick minute to write a review. Thanks for reading!<p> 


	6. Chapter 6: The Talk

A/N: Hope you like longer chapters, this one is on the longer side. Thanks for all of the reviews so far! Please keep them coming!

Disclaimer: Wish I owned them!

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><p>Chapter 6- The Talk<p>

"Hey dad!"

"Hey sweetie!" He greeted her with a kiss to the head. "Something smells delicious."

"Gram and I made lasagna, it's in the oven. It should be done in about twenty minutes."

"Perfect, that will give us some time to talk."

"Talk about what?"

"Why don't we have a seat?" They walked to the living room. Alexis plopped on the couch, Castle took a chair across from her. "I've always been open with you about my relationships, haven't I?"

"Yes, I guess so. Not that you have had many lately. When are you going to start dating again dad? You keep telling me that I shouldn't wait around and drop everything for Ashley all of the time. You say it doesn't make for a good relationship. Yet, you have been doing it for the past four years with Detective Beckett."

He loves how direct his daughter can be. His words sure don't taste so good when they are thrown back into his face. He knows that she is right though.

"You're right Alexis." She wasn't expecting that reply. She half figured he would go into some speech about how things were different with them and blah, blah, blah. "That's changing though." He took a deep breath. " You know that I care very deeply for Kate."

"Yes dad, I know."

"In the past few days, she has finally admitted that she feels the same."

"Really? So you are finally in a real relationship?"

"Yes. We've been out a couple of times and things are going great."

"That's great dad," the sarcasm was thick in her voice. "That's fabulous. What are you trying to do, get your heart broken again? You know how she is dad, 'one step forward, two steps back?'"

He sighed. "I know that is how things have been in the past, but I really do think things are different now."

"Are you sure you aren't just _wanting_them to be different?" With that remark she left the room. He was a little stunned at her reaction. She had always seemed to like and respect Kate. She had known for a long time that he had feelings for her.

"Oh Richard, give her time." Martha said as she entered the room, not pretending she hadn't heard the whole conversation. "She will come around. She just worries about you kiddo. You are her dad and she has seen Beckett break your heart before, we both have."

"Mother, she finally admitted that she loved me. We've been out twice and it's been more than perfect. She finally let me in, opened up to me. I know I've been hurt in the past, but she has just as much if not more to lose than I do right now."

"Well, I always knew you two would find your way. Although, I was beginning to doubt myself," she quickly added. "Give Alexis time, she'll come around." She patted his shoulder. "Now, I must head out. Dinner is in the oven, should be done anytime. Don't let Alexis fool you, she did all of the work on it."

"I wouldn't doubt that for a minute, mother."

"Take care, and don't wait up!" She twirled out the door, off to another escapade.

The timer went off just as the door closed. Castle walked over to the oven and removed the lasagna pan. "Alexis? Dinner's ready," he yelled toward her room.

"Go ahead dad, I'm not in the mood to eat right now," she said sulking.

Dinner alone? Not what he had in mind. He could call and invite Kate over, but he decided with the mood his daughter was in, that might not be the smartest move. He dished out a plate for himself and headed to his study to write.

Try as he might, he couldn't focus on his novel. So instead, he decided to write a letter. He knew it wouldn't be opened for a long time to come, but that would make it all the more meaningful.

_Dearest Kate,_

_If you are reading this, then we must be getting married tomorrow. I'm writing this the evening after our first trip to Coney Island. The past two days have been so incredible. I have been trying to work on my novel, but my mind kept replaying the memories of the past few months._

_Almost 6 months ago, a part of me died. When that shot rang out and I knew you had been hit, my world changed. I held you, looking into your eyes, watching the life drain from your body. I knew at that moment, that I couldn't live without you in my life. _

_You wanted space, so as much as it killed me, I gave it to you. I needed you, but I knew that to push you then would drive you away forever. The three months away from you seemed like an eternity. When I saw you at the book signing, my breath caught. You were so beautiful, so alive. I was so angry. Not so much with you as with myself. I should have admitted my feelings to you long before I did._

_Three days ago, you finally admitted your feelings to me. Since then we have had two incredible dates. Last night couldn't have been any better. I can still feel our bodies pressed against each other as we danced. It was one of the few moments in my life that truly took my breath away. I left you that night all the more certain of my feelings for you._

_Today at Coney Island I saw another side of you. You were playful, carefree, fun-loving. I know right now, as I write this letter to you, that someday you will do me the honor of having you as my wife._

_Tomorrow will be one of the two happiest days of my life. The only event that can even hold a candle to it is the day Alexis was born. _

_Kate, you are the most beautiful woman I have ever met. I don't know what I ever did to deserve you. Thank you so much for making all of my dreams come true. I promise you that I will spend every day, for the rest of my life, making sure that you know how much I love you._

_Sleep well tonight, my love. Tomorrow promises to be unforgettable._

_Love,_

_Castle_

He sealed the letter and placed it in his safe. One could say the premise of the letter was wishful thinking, but he knew that the day would come when Kate would become his wife.

The next day, Castle came into the Twelfth with his standard two cups of coffee. He was about to set it down in front of Kate when she hung up the phone and jumped up from her seat, knocking the coffee out of his hand in the process.

"Oh my god Castle, I am so sorry. I didn't realize you were right there." The coffee had spilled all over the front of his shirt.

"It's ok. What's the rush?"

"Body found up the street from here a couple of blocks. I'd ask you to come, but thanks to me I think you will need to change shirts. Again, I am so sorry."

"Don't worry about it. I will just run home and change. I'll catch up with you at the scene."

"Great, see you there." She turned and headed out. He just watched as she got onto the elevator. It still amazed him, how she could compartmentalize everything. Even he couldn't tell there was something going on between them while at the precinct.

He headed home, changed shirts and then went to meet up with the team at the crime scene.

"Hey Castle! Come on over," Esposito hollered when he saw Castle coming under the crime tape.

Castle could see the Kate and Lanie were hovering over the body, presumably discussing the details of the death. "So what are we looking at?" Castle asked as he approached Esposito and Ryan who were comparing notes.

"A woman in her mid to late twenties, Caucasian, gun shot to the leg." Ryan rattled off the details that they already knew.

"To the leg. That doesn't usually kill a person," Castle replied.

"It does it if hits the femoral artery and no one stops the blood," Lanie responded as she and Beckett approached.

"Hey Castle, nice shirt," Kate teased. It was good to know that some things hadn't changed.

"Glad you approve, maybe you won't make me spill anything on this one. So, do you guys have any leads yet?"

"Not yet. Unis are canvassing the area to see if anyone saw anything." She turned to Ryan and Esposito. "I'm going to go see about pulling the files from these cameras, Castle, you wanna come with?" He nodded in response. "Lanie let me know if you get any hits from her fingerprints when you get her back to the morgue.

"You know I will girl."

Kate and Castle headed off to her car to make the trip down to the public works office to pull the tapes. "How'd your conversation with Alexis go last night?" She had waited fro a moment when they had a little privacy, so that she could find out.

"Well, she was a little less than receptive. She is concerned that..."

"That I will break your heart again?"

"Yah. She'll get over it though."

"I'm sorry Castle, the last thing I wanted to do was drive a wedge between you and your daughter."

"Don't worry about it. I think it probably has more to do with her frustrations over Ashley than anything, but don't tell her I said that. Martha overheard our conversation, she agrees that Alexis just needs some time."

"Is that all she said?"

"No, I think she was glad that we finally put it all out there. She knew it was coming at some point."

"Did you?"

"Did I know it was coming?" Kate nodded her head. "I certainly hoped. I knew I wanted it to, but I wasn't sure that you would ever get to the point that you would let your feelings out."

Kate pondered that. He was probably right. It wasn't until he challenged her with the "you never let fear stop you, why are you doing so now" comment that she realized what she was doing. She didn't have a lot of time to process the conversation before she reached the public works building.

The technicians made copies of the tapes that she could take back. As they were leaving the building, Discs in hand, her phone rang.

"Beckett. Hey Lanie...sure, we can be there in about ten minutes."

Once they got into the car, Castle decided to rest his hand on her leg and gave it a gentle squeeze as she drove. "So, where did you put your big teddy?"

She laughed at the memory of the bear. "Oh, you'll have to see when you come by tonight." They hadn't really planned on getting together, so it was as much a question as a statement.

"Is that an invitation?"

"Yeah, I was thinking we could grab something on the way home from the precinct, maybe watch a movie?"

"Do I get to pick the movie?"

Geez, he was such a kid sometimes. "Um, yah, sure." They were exiting the car, her demeanor hardening as they walked into the building and took the elevator to see Lanie.

"What do you have Lanie?"

"Ran her prints through APHIS, got a hit. Meet Talia Gant, she did a year back when she was 18 for a drug charge, otherwise, clean record. No sign of drugs or alcohol in her system. I did find the beginnings of a bruise on her upper arm. It looks like someone grabbed her arm pretty hard just before she was shot. That combined with the bloody, fat lip; I'm going to guess this was probably a domestic abuse case. She has several fractures that appear to have healed incorrectly, probably due to lack of medical attention. Older bruises litter her body. No sign of a wedding ring, so I'm going to guess a boyfriend."

"Thanks Lanie. Castle and I will check into that."

"Later Kate, Castle."

"Bye Lanie," the replied in unison. The left the morgue, heading for the elevator. When they got off, they proceeded to Kate's desk to look into the boyfriend angle.

"Well, it looks like she worked as a receptionist for a financial firm, lets head over and see if anyone knows anything about a boyfriend."

They were able to find out from a friend that indeed there was a boyfriend and that there had been constant abuse for the past six or seven years. Esposito and Ryan caught up with the boyfriend and brought him in. He was awaiting Beckett's interrogation.

"So, Mr. Hamilton, you are aware that we found you girlfriend, Talia Gant, murdered this morning." Beckett started off. She knew right off this guy was their killer.

"Yeah, that's what the other dude said."

"Dang man, nothing like a nonchalant attitude about the death of a girlfriend." Castle couldn't believe it.

"Yeah, whatever. Look, I didn't shoot her, ok?"

"And how did you know she had been shot Mr. Hamilton?" Was this really going to be this easy for her?

"I don't know, assumed it I guess."

"Can you tell me what you were doing this morning between six and eight this morning?"

"Riding to work."

"And how did you get to work?" She asked, her patience wearing thin.

"By bus?"

"Are you asking us? Shouldn't you know if that is what you are using for your alibi?" Castle asked incredulously.

"Well, that should be easy enough for us to verify. Please wait here Mr. Hamilton."

Not surprisingly, the alibi did not check out. Later that day the murder weapon was recovered and he was booked on first degree murder charges. Beckett had just finished filing all of the paperwork required for the booking and was ready to call it a night.

"Well Castle," she said, in full hearing of the others. "I think I'm going to call it a night. Want me to drop you off at your place?"

"Um, yah, sure. Hey guys, guess I'll see you tomorrow! Be ready to play."

After the got onto the elevator, out of earshot from her snoopy team she asked Castle what he meant when he said 'be ready to play.'

"Oh we are planning to get together for a night of poker. Javier is planning to get Lanie to come, and I was hoping you would fill the fifth spot."

She was slightly disappointed. She was hoping she would have Castle to herself for a few nights, but she knew they didn't want the others to get suspicious.

"Oh, yah, sure, that sounds like fun." They exited the elevator and headed to her car.

"You don't sound so sure about that," he replied, wondering what was going on.

She let the statement hang in the air until they were in the car. "I was just kind of hoping to have you to myself for a few evenings," she said, with a slight blush.

"Well, looky there. Someone wants me all to herself."

"Oh shut up Castle!" They both laughed. A few minutes later she decided she better figure out where they were heading. "So where should we grab something for dinner?"

"Let's stop at Yen Chang's?"

"Mmmm, love that place." They stopped to pick up the food and headed to her apartment. Unlike the past few times they had been here, the mood was light and flirty. Castle  
>got up to look through Kate's DVD collection.<p>

"Interesting...How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, 50 First Dates, Sweet Home Alabama, Date Night, The Proposal, Titanic, Twilight...are we a hopeless romantic or what?"

"Well, they beat my love life most of the time." After seeing the hurt look cross his face, she grinned. "Until now Castle, until now."

"So, which is your favorite?"

"Of those? Oh, probably How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days."

"So that's where you got tips on how to keep me an arm's length away? Well, I guess we had better watch it so that I can see any tricks you haven't pulled yet." The ornery grin that she loved so much flashed across his face. He was joking with her, mostly anyway.

They started the movie and cuddled up on the couch to finish their meal. Once done, Kate went to the kitchen for two glasses and a bottle of wine. "Care for a glass?"

"Love one, thanks." They snuggled in with their wine as the movie continued. At some point a little more than halfway through the movie, Kate lifted her head from his shoulder and kissed him. After a brief kiss, he took both of their glasses, set them on the coffee table. He turned back to her, gently grabbed the sides of her face and pulled her back to him with a much more sensual kiss. He poured his feelings into that kiss, as did she. The movie was all but forgotten.

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><p>Please review, it makes writing so much more fun when I know I have readers who like what I'm doing :)<p> 


	7. Chapter 7: All In

A/N: I am so excited with all the hits, but I sure hope to see more reviews soon :) I hope you like this chapter, it's shorter than most of mine, but I think it's fun. Lots of excitement coming in the next few chapters, stay tuned!

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><p>Chapter 7- All In?<p>

Kate was the first to arrive at Castle's, and was relieved to have a few minutes alone with him. They managed to talk for a couple of minutes by the door before he pinned her against the back of the door for a kiss. too bad for them, it was cut short by a knock. They pulled away quickly. Once castle was sure they had both regained their composure, he opened the door.

"Ryan should be right behind us. He was pulling up as we caught the elevator," Esposito announced as he and Lanie entered.

"Hey, Lanie, how's it going?" Kate called from the other room. Lanie followed the voice and found her friend.

"Hey girl, you beat us all here I guess. Usually we have to wait on you."

"Yeah, well figured I'd break my late streak," she said nonchalantly.

"How are things, I haven't talked to you much lately outside of work. You seem to have been awfully busy lately. Anything I need to know about?" She asked, a mischievous glint in her eye.

"Nope, just busy I guess. Not really sure what I've been doing though."

Luckily for Kate, the guys came in before she had to try to make up what she had been so busy doing. "Looks, like every one's here, let's play," she announced, way more eager than she usually was when they got together to play cards.

"I call," Ryan said.

"Me too," Esposito concurred.

"Castle, you in or out?" Kate asked. Lanie had folded a few minutes earlier.

Castle checked his cards, he had a good hand and was pretty sure he would take the pot. "I call too. What do you have Kate?"

"Full house, Queens over Nines."

"Beats my three sixes," Ryan called.

"Oooh... 666, not such a great combo. Beats my two pair, Ace high," Esposito conceded.

"Well, read 'em and weep Beckett. Full House, Kings over fours."

"Dang Castle, this would be why no one wants to play with you," Esposito said.

He was too busy raking his winnings together to bother with a response. They had been playing for a little over two hours, and the chatter had died out a bit.

"Who's up for another game?" Castle asked, all too excited having won the last round.

"Last game for us," Lanie said, indicating herself and Esposito.

"Same here," Ryan added.

"Ok, last hand, Ryan, your deal, your game."

"Ok, Texas Hold 'Em, no limits."

The first round of cards are dealt and betting ensues. The three flop cards were dealt. Lanie took one look and folded.

"You always fold early," Castle said.

"Well, I'm only here because I was dragged, you all know I'm not the one into the cards. You all continue, I'm going to go to go powder my nose."

The rest of the group placed their bets and the turn card was set out.

"Ouch, I'm out too." Esposito announced, more than a little irritated at his luck.

"Same here. Guess it's just the two of you." The level of intensity in the room raised significantly. Unbeknownst to the rest of the group, a little wager had been made between Castle and Beckett before anyone had arrived. There were a few certain _favors _that would have to be performed by the loser.

The plop cards were a six of spades, eight of diamonds, and a nine of diamonds with a turn card of a Jack of clubs

Kate was holding a seven of clubs and a ten of diamonds. Castle had a seven of hearts and an five of hearts. They both had a straight, but Kate's was the high hand.

"All in," stated Castle as he slowly pushed all of his winnings to the center of the table. There was a quiet gasp. They didn't play for the big bucks at this table, that was for when Castle played his rich, writer buddies. Still though, an 'all in' suggested some serious confidence. Castle's blue eyes bored into her emerald greens.

Kate recognized that the true challenge here had nothing to do with the game.

"So, what's going on?" Lanie asked as she returned to the room.

"Well, Castle here just went all in. We are waiting on Kate to decide if she's in or out." Ryan explained as the tension mounted.

Kate took one last look at her cards. She peered into Castle's eyes and slowly moved all of her chips to the center. Suddenly, it was as if they were alone in the room. Everyone else faded into the background. "I am definitely all in." She emphasized the final two words and by the slight twitch of his lip, she knew he understood.

"Read 'em and weep. Straight, nine high."

"Oh," she let her face fall for a moment as he reached for the pot of chips. Then a slow smile came across her face. "Straight...Jack high. Looks like I won!"

The exchange must have lasted longer than either of them thought. They snapped back to reality as their friends began gathering their things. Everyone caught the looks, everyone suspected something, but no one dared make any reference to what they had just witnessed.

"Thanks for a fun evening," Lanie said as she hugged Castle and Kate.

"Yeah, thanks for hosting again man," Esposito said as he shook Castle's hand and gave him a pat on the back.

"Night Kate. Night Castle," Ryan said as he slipped out the door not far behind. The two waved from the door, then Castle closed it.

As soon as the door latched closed, Kate backed Castle against it. "You do know what this means don't you?" She asked in a sultry tone.

"Oooooh yeah. It means that you, my lady, are _all in_."

"I was hoping you caught that." Her lips were mere inches from his, her tone, sexy. "And, I won, which means, I _own_you."

"Well master, what now?" She kissed him deeply...passionately.

They walked to his room, never breaking the kiss. "Alexis?" She asked against his lips.

"Gone," came the reply.

"Martha?"

"Gone."

As they entered his room, they quickly found the bed. He spent the rest of the night obeying every order she gave.

The next morning he woke first. He couldn't have been happier than he was at that moment. She was asleep on his chest, neither of them were wearing anything. There was a chill in the room. He pulled her in closer and began running his finger across her back. He remembered a game he and Alexis would play when he would rub her back as he was putting her to bed when she was little. He used to write on her back and she had to guess the words. He knew Kate was still asleep, so he began writing words, hoping the subliminally they would work their way into her mind.

I...L...O...V...E...Y...O...U, he began.  
>M...Y...O...N...E...A...N...D...O...N...L...Y.<br>M...A...R...R...Y...M...E.  
>M...O...V...E...I...N...W...I...T...H...M...E.<p>

"I'd love to," she whispered into his chest.

He froze. _Oh my god, how much of that did she figure out._"How...much...did..."

"Enough," she replied before he could stutter out the full question. She lifter self up on her arms so that she could look him in the eyes. "Did you mean it?"

"Of course, with every ounce of my being." Still unsure of what she had responded to for sure, he didn't really know what else to say.

"I wouldn't want to get rid of my place just yet, but I can't think of anywhere I'd rather be than with you each night. But, I want you to talk to Alexis first. This is her home and I don't want to invade it." She got out of bed and began finding her clothes amongst the items strung across the floor.

"This time, I want you there with me."

"No problem, you name the time and I will be here." She quickly began dressing, she knew she didn't have a while lot of time before she had to be to work. "I had better get back to my place though. It's been slow at the precinct for a few days, so I'm sure it's just a matter of time before we get hit. You coming in today?"

"Where else wouId want to be? I'll see you there." They headed to the door. He leaned in for a quick kiss. "See you in a bit."

"Ok, bye Castle." She started out the door and turned for a last comment. "Oh, by the way, I love you too." She grinned and quickly left. He stood at the door slack jawed. He hadn't said I love you to her today. Then her froze, remembering he had written it across her back. And if she was awake when he wrote that, then she was also awake when her wrote...He jambed his knuckle into his mouth biting down. He never meant for her to know that was on his mind, but he was caught.

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><p>Please leave a review, it really makes my day!<p> 


	8. Chapter 8: Déjà vu

A/N: The next two chapters were originally together in one, but someone suggested I not rush things as much so I expanded each and they became too long for one. So, I do leave things on a bit of a cliffhanger, but will try to get the next one posted very soon.

Disclaimer: I'd love to own Castle, but I don't :(

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><p>Chapter 8- Déjà vu<p>

"Hey Beckett," he said as he answered the phone.

"Hey, why don't you plan on meeting me at the apartments at 9th and lex."

"New one, huh? Ok, be there in about fifteen minutes." He was next in line to get their coffee and then he would head over. He hoped this case wasn't too crazy. She was always more on edge when things didn't go well.

He approached with his hand outstretched to her holding her coffee.

"Thanks Castle!" Then with her voice at almost a whisper as she took a drink, "I really need this after the little sleep we got last night."

He grinned, surprised to hear the admission while they were at work.

"So, what have we got Lanie?"

"Multiple stab wounds to the chest. I'd say within the the last 6-10 hours. I'll let you know more when I get her back to the morgue.

Ryan and Esposito approached. "Our vic is one Bethany Steincrass. According to her ID she is 36. It appears she lives here alone, no sign of another person. CSU found the knife in the kitchen, on the floor." Ryan rattled off the notes he had compiled so far.

"Our perp didn't even bother to try to hide it," Esposito chimed in.

"No signs of forced injury, so she most likely knew her killer." Ryan finished, glaring for a moment at Esposito for interrupting.

"Let's canvass the apartments in the building, see if anyone saw or heard anything."

"Castle and I will track down a family member and make the notification."

Castle and Beckett took off. They traced down her only living relative, a sister. The sister broke down when she hears the news.

"I just don't understand who could have done this. I mean, Bethy hardly even left her apartment. She worked from home on her computer, the only time she left was for her fan fiction meetings. She didn't have any enemies."

"Fan fiction meetings?" Castle asked.

"Yes, she loved writing fan fiction, she's actually the president of the group that writes based on your novels Mr. Castle. She's a huge fan of yours. She would..." She broke down into tears.

Beckett gave her a minute to compose herself. "Do you know anything about these meetings?"

"Only that the met on Tuesday and Friday mornings at the coffee shop down from her apartment."

"Thank you for your help. If anything comes to mind, please give me a call at this number, and again, I am truly sorry for the loss of your sister."

"Thank you Detective." Beckett and Castle decided to head back to Bethany's apartment to look for more information on this group. They had CSU pull her laptop to see what they could glean from it.

On the way back to the precinct, they stopped off to grab some lunch. "So Kate, what do we think, some fellow fan fiction writer stalked and killed this woman for her presidency of the club?"

Kate chuckled. "People have been known to kill for less. Besides, I thought you'd have a better spin than that. No CIA involvement or alien abductions?"

"Nah, I think stalker sounds better for this," he said with a twitch to his eye brow. No matter what, the guy could always make her smile.

They finished up their lunch and headed to the tech lab back at the precinct to see if they found anything on her laptop.

Rob was the tech looking through Bethany's laptop when they arrived.

"Found anything yet?" Beckett asked.

"Man, this girl lived on her computer. What do you need to know because I'm pretty sure anything you want to know is right inside."

"Her sister said something about a fan fiction club. Any details?"

"Her browser history showed multiple fan sites that she visited often. The club probably refers to a message board that she was pretty active on. It seems like a group of them met a couple times a week. It does seem that there was a contact through that site that didn't like her much. Kept telling her to step down as the president, that she didn't deserve it. Her screen name is CastleObsessed." As the name tumbled from the tech's mouth, Castle felt like he had been punched. Luckily, Kate did not catch the look on his face. "I've looked through emails, and the site she worked for, nothing jumped out at me there. She's downloaded some movies, but no porn or anything. Not too many photos, mostly of these two little girls. There just really isn't much that pops."

"Can you work on getting me a real name and address for this fan? And let me know if anything else stands out."

"Sure, I'll let you know what I find."

"Thanks!" They headed back to the precinct. Within minutes, two uniformed officers, followed by Gates approached Castle.

"Richard Castle?"

"Yes." He said, wondering what was going on.

"Richard Castle, you are under arrest for the murder of Bethany Steincrass."

"WHAT?" Beckett exploded. "Gates, are you kidding me? What on earth is going on here?"

"Castle's fingerprints were found on the murder weapon. Mr. Castle, I'd like you to walk with these gentlemen to the interrogation room." He did so and sat down at the interrogation table. This was Déjà vu. He had only sat on this side of the table one other time. That time Kate thought he was a murderer, now Gates?

Kate began to follow Gates into the room. "Oh no Beckett. You will not be in on this interview. You may watch from the observation room, but you are not to enter."

With that she entered the room, closing the door in Kate's face. Kate immediately went into the observation room, followed by Ryan and Esposito.

"Mr. Castle, do you want to tell me why your fingerprints were on the knife used to stab Bethany Steincrass?"

"Ma'am, Sir," he quickly recovered. "I don't have any idea why my fingerprints would be on the weapon, but I didn't stab that girl, I don't even know that girl!"

"Then you won't mind telling me where you were last night?"

"I was at home. In fact, Dr. Parish, Esposito, Ryan, and Beckett were all there with me."

"All night?"

"Well, no, they left around 11:30."

"How inconvenient for you. Dr. Parish has narrowed down time of death to 2:00-4:00 AM. Can anyone vouch for your where abouts during that time?"

Behind the glass, Beckett cringed. "This is ridiculous, everyone knows Castle didn't kill anyone!"

"Well his fingerprints are on the murder weapon." One look at Beckett's face and he knew he better soften his statement. "Not that I think he killed her or anything, but you can see why she is questioning him."

"Mr. Castle, please answer my question."

He wasn't sure what to say. He knew that neither of them were ready for the office to know about them, but he also knew that he needed her alibi. "I'm sure my doorman can confirm that I never left the building after the others."

"I'm not sure that will be good enough." She turned and left the room.

He let out the breath he had been holding. He needed to talk to Kate.

"Ryan, Esposito, check with the doorman at Castle's place." They jumped up and left the room. Gates closed the door behind them.

"Look, I don't know why his prints are on the knife, but I know that he didn't do this."

"I don't care what you _think_you know. Evidence speaks. Now, if you can't remain objective, then I will pull you from this case."

There was a knock at the door. Gates opened it. Kate looked back at Castle. She could see the shock and panic in his face. She knew he was protecting them by not telling Gates that she was with him, and she would play along for now, but she wasn't going to let it go too far.

"The doorman confirmed that no one left after our group. They have video surveillance if we need to pull it." Ryan stated, relief in his voice. He never really doubted Castle, but he hoped that this would go at least a little way to confirm the story.

"Can we release him now?" Kate asked, trying to keep the plea sound from her voice.

"No, I am not releasing him until we can explain this."

"May I speak with him?"

Gates pondered the question. She had her doubts that Castle was mixed up in this, but she had to follow procedure. "You have 5 minutes, and then I want you back out on this case. If your friend is innocent, then we need to figure out what is going on." She stalked off to her office, the guys went to their desks, Kate went into the interrogation room. She knew she didn't have much time in case someone doubled back to watch the conversation.

At the sight of her, he relaxed. "Kate, I...we...oh my god, what is going on?"

"I don't know, but we will get to the bottom of it. Why didn't you tell her I could alibi you out?"

"I knew you and the guys were all back there, I knew you didn't want them to know yet. Besides, this will buy us some time at least. Listen, go back to my apartment, here's the key. Take my laptop to the tech we talked to earlier."

"Ok, why?"

"There is some stuff from CastleObsessed. She has kind of been stalking me a bit. Kate, be careful what you read, I know there is some stuff that will upset you and some stuff that may bring out other emotions. I would appreciate it if you would screen as much as you can, there's a lot of private information I'd rather the rest of the team not know about."

"I'm not sure what you mean, but I will go pick it up now. Hang tight, I will do everything I can to get you out of here."

"Good, because right now, I really need to hold you." His voice was so low that even if someone was listening, there would be no way they could hear.

"I love you, Rick," she said equally quietly. She gently squeezed his hand and left the room. She was relieved to see that it didn't appear anyone had tried to eavesdrop on their conversation.

She immediately left to pick up Castle's laptop. When she got back to the tech lab, she pulled Rob aside. "This is Castle's laptop. I need you to find anything you can that could help us figure out who might have set him up for murder. He said that 'CastleObsessed' had contacted him and it would all be found on here."

"Sure." He took the laptop and began looking into the browser history, saved files, and emails. Kate stayed around to watch. He pulled up a folder named Obsessed. Within the folder, there were three sub folders, one titled CastleObsessed. Rob opened the folder and found hundreds of copies of emails and scanned letters. It would appear that 'CastleObsessed' truly was obsessed! Kate read the files over Rob's shoulder. Rob sorted them by date and they pulled them up from the oldest to the most current. The first few seemed innocent enough, but then they became more concerning.

_Richard,_

_I saw you with your ex. I thought we agree that you would stay away from her. I better not see you with her again._

_Richard,_

_You didn't listen. You went out with her again. I warned you._

_Richard, _

_So glad you took my advice and left her. We should meet soon._

The letters continued in much the same fashion. Anytime she thought he was dating, he became upset and made vague threats. They made their way to the most recent files.

_Rick,_

_You aren't suppose to be with your detective friend. What is it that you were doing last night in her apartment?_

_Rick, _

_Phantom, really? You better leave that little bitch or there will be consequences._

_Ricky,_

_You took the bitch to the amusement park. I hope you know what you are getting into. I am NOT going to let you do this. I know that you THINK you love her, but you don't. I'm your true love. I guess I am going to have to help you get away from her. Anything for you Ricky._

This was getting creepy. She had been following them around. How could Kate not have seen it? She is trained to know what's going on around her. But Castle gave her tunnel vision, when they were out together, the rest of the world simply didn't exist. She was beginning to understand his comments from earlier.

"Did you find anything else on the vic's laptop?"

"She had a couple of threats from 'CastleObsessed'. She really wanted to be president of this club. No real name, but I can tell you this. Almost half of the posts made from CastleObsessed came from a single IP address. Bad thing is that it's a coffee shop."

"I can work with that, which one?"

He gave her the address and she headed there, calling for Ryan and Esposito to meet her there.

"Kate Beckett, NYPD, we are searching for a woman who probably sits here most days on her computer."

"Do you know how many people do that?"

"This one also probably meets with the fan fiction group that comes here on Tuesdays and Fridays."

"Oh, I think I do know who you might be talking about. Stella Rigsby. She usually comes in around 4, hang around a bit, she ought to be in soon. The three of them ordered coffee and had a seat. When the owner welcomed her by name, the three moved in.

"Stella Rigsby? May we have a word with you?" Beckett asked flashing her badge.

They brought Stella back to the precinct. Castle had been moved to holding, Stella took his place in interrogation.

"Ms. Rigsby, do you know Bethany Steincrass?"

"Yes, she is in my writing club."

"She was murdered today." Kate could tell so much by the response of a suspect to that statement. Stella Rigsby didn't flinch, in fact she seemed far more fascinated than shocked.

"Really?"

"Yes, really. You don't seem surprised?"

"No, she probably deserved it. She had a way of making everyone so mad. She was the president of our group, really didn't deserve to be. Our group was for real fans of Richard Castle, she was far more into Connelly. He's a disgrace to writing. Ricky is so much better."

Ricky? She knew that this was the woman who wrote the letters, but how does all of this connect?

"Ricky? So you must know him?"

"Oh yes, he and I go way back."

"Where were you last night, Ms. Rigsby, between the hours of 2 and 4 AM?"

"I wasn't feeling well, so I was home sleeping."

"Is there anyone who can confirm that?"

"I doubt it. No one lives with me. Wait a minute, you don't think I killed her?"

Kate decided to play a little game to see where this lead. She was pretty sure this woman was living in a fantasy world and that fantasy might just help them. "No, actually we are pretty sure Richard Castle killed her, we are just trying to figure out why. Do you have any thoughts?"

"Well, Ricky and I do have a bit of a relationship, maybe she got jealous and approached him. He does have a quick temper, but I doubt he would do something like this. He really is a kind man."

"Well, thank you for your help, I will be in touch if we have any further questions." Kate left the room. She knew that this was the killer and figured that she would incriminate herself if she gave her the time and space to do so.

"Detective Beckett?" Gates called for her from her office door.

Kate walked to the Captain's office. Shee really wanted this day, this case to end. "Yes, sir?"

"Crime lab called. There was a DNA match on one of the hairs found in Bethany Steincrass's apartment, belonging to Richard Castle. I am pulling him back to interrogation now. Your writer friend has one last chance to fess up."

Kate watched, her heart breaking, as they walked Castled back to the interrogation room. Gates had a hint of a smile as she walked in. Beckett, Ryan, and Esposito immediately went to the observation room.

"Mr. Castle, DNA came back on a hair found at the crime scene. It is a match to you. Would you like to explain?"

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><p>Please Review! I've gotten some great feedback from several of you and would love more!<p> 


	9. Chapter 9: Fired Up

A/N: Thanks for all of the reviews thus far! I hope that this doesn't feel too rushed. Enjoy, and please review :)

Disclaimer: A girl can only dream...

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><p>Chapter 9- Fired Up<p>

"Like I said before, I don't know how to explain any of this." He began to sweat. He had made up his mind that he would not share their secret. He had enough faith in Kate that she would solve this thing without him divulging their relationship.

"There are two other exits in your building that are not in sight of your doorman. It is completely possible that you left the apartment after the others and killed Bethany Steincrass."

"Pull the videos. All of the exits are monitored, I insisted on that a few years ago. I don't know what is going on, but I am being framed by someone. I wouldn't kill anyone!"

"Mr. Castle, your prints are on the weapon, your DNA is in the apartment. There isn't a jury in New York that wouldn't convict you based on that information."

"Look, I didn't do it. I was in my home all night, I left around 8 this morning to come here. I stopped to get coffee as I always do, when I was in line, Detective Beckett called to let me that there was a case. I made my way to the apartment then. That was the first I had seen the victim or the apartment. I have no idea why my fingerprints were on the knife, wait a minute. Did the knife have a broken tip?"

Kate watched from behind the glass, great he was going to incriminate himself because he knew a detail about the knife.

"As a matter of fact, it did. Would you like to tell me how you knew that detail?"

"I threw away a set of knives a few days ago. The butcher knife had a broken tip and I wanted a new set anyway, so I tossed them. Of course my fingerprint would be on it, they were mine."

Kate was quickly putting the pieces together in her mind. Rigsby had to have seen Rick throw them away and dug them out of the dumpster. Castle just needed to tell Gates to check his computer, but she knew there were files he didn't want anyone to see, but especially Gates.

That is a very convenient story Mr. Castle. Do you have sort of proof back this up? Because here is what I see from my perspective. I have a knife used to stab a fan repeatedly. The knife is found in the apartment, not 20 feet from the body. Your fingerprints are all over the knife. You know details about the knife. Your DNA was found on scene. You have no alibi. I'm sure that the D.A. will take this case and run with it.

Kate's heart sank. She knew Gates was right, he needed an alibi. She knew what she had to do. She stood up and walked into the interrogation room.

"Detective Beckett, I believe that I told you that you were not allowed in this room."

"I know, but I need to say something. Castle did NOT do this."

"Kate, don't do this," his voice was pleading with her.

"Castle, I have to."

"No, you don't." He sighed, he knew that nothing he said would convince her otherwise.

"Captain Gates, Richard Castle was with me last night."

"Yes, he has said that, and you left with the others at 11:30. He had more than enough time to make it to Ms. Steincrass's apartment and kill her."

"Actually, no, I didn't leave at 11:30." Her voice was much softer than she had planned, almost breakable. She let the statement soak in, giving herself a moment to firm her voice. "I stayed, I stayed all night."

She couldn't see the looks on Ryan and Esposito, but if she could, she would see them slack jawed and speechless. Lanie was going to kill her over the fact that they know knew before she did. She didn't care about the response though. She didn't want their secret out yet, but that paled in comparison to Castle being arrested, and she was positive that Gates was only moments away from booking him.

Castle just sat with his head in his hands. He really didn't want her to have to do that. He wanted to say something, but there was nothing more to say. He needed to touch her, needed to know that things between them were ok. She was a runner and a builder. Would she try to run, or rebuild the wall that he felt like he was finally helping her tear down?

Gates was furious and so flustered that she could barely formulate a full sentence. In fact it came out in several snippets of a sentence. "Detective Beckett. A word. My office. Now!" Gates marched out, Kate glanced over her shoulder Rick had his head in his hands.

"Castle? It's going to be ok." She said as she followed Gates to the office, the door slammig behind her.

Ryan and Esposito entered the interrogation room. "Bro! When did you plan on letting us in on your little secret?" Esposito asked.

Castle sighed. "I don't know, it was all so new. We just wanted to get used to the idea first. This is not how we planned on telling you guys."

"Don't worry, Kate will hold her own in there." They heard the beginnings of a shouting match through the thins walls.

Gates paced the room too angry to speak at first. "Are you telling me that you and Mr. Castle are sleeping together?" Gates spat at her. "Is that why you two were so damned determined to keep him here, so that you could play out some fantasy workplace romance?"

"Sir, I was providing you with the alibi that he wouldn't admit to because he wanted to keep our private business private. I can tell you with 100% certainty that he never left his apartment. I was with him until 7 when I left to come here. As for your other accusation, no, this was not something we had planned nor something that had been going on long. This is a very recent development." She had overcome what weakness she had shown in interrogation. She was back to the Beckett that wouldn't take anything from anyone, even her own supervisor.

"Do I look like an idiot Detective Beckett?"

"No, sir."

"You do realize that it is not acceptable to date someone within the precinct? There are policies against this sort of thing for a reason. Emotions get involved and then someone gets killed."

"I know the policies, sir. However, Castle is not a cop, and is not even a paid consultant, therefore I am not going against any of the written policies." Kate is glad she had the forethought to check this out, she had in fact looked into it months ago.

This Detective Beckett had some nerve spouting policy to her. "Look, as much as I would love to lock that man up, I can't go against an alibi provided from one of my own, so I am releasing Castle." Her anger rose again as she considered how much of an embarrassment Beckett was to her right now. She needed some time to figure out what to do with her. "You, Detective Beckett, are to take the rest of this week off, report to my office next Monday morning and we will deal with this... this situation then. Now the two of you need to leave this precinct NOW!" She opened the door, and motioned for Kate to leave the office.

Kate knew better than to say another word. She was pretty sure there was actually smoke coming from the woman's ears.

She walked back to the interrogation room, avoiding the eye contact of everyone except Rick. In an instant, he melted her insides. "Castle, let's go."

The guys looked at each other dumbfounded. "Kate?" Castle asked.

"Gates is releasing you, and I am out for the remainder of the week. Esposito and Ryan, follow up with Rob in the tech lab. He should be able to find enough evidence for you to book Stella Rigsby on. Call me if you need to, but you better not let Gates know. Oh, and let her cool off a bit. I'm not sure she has ever been that mad." The three men continued to stare, not able to form words. She grabbed Castle's hand and dragged him to the elevator.

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><p>Please leave a comment of two :)<p> 


	10. Chapter 10: Time Off

A/N: Thanks for the reviews, I'm so glad you are enjoying the story. I can't believe how many of you have favorited it and are getting story alerts. I hope this chapter entertains you as well. Please review!

Disclaimer: Don't own them.

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><p>Chapter 10- Time Off<p>

Once the elevator doors closed, he grabbed the sides of her face and gave her a kiss that rivaled any thus far. It didn't last long, but it left her breathless and unsteady.

As she felt the elevator coming settling onto the ground floor, she pulled back. "You're welcome," she replied, barely able to speak. She regained her composure quickly. "Let's go to my place, we need to talk. Where's Martha and Alexis?" She asked as they made their way to the car.

"They are both home, or should be, why?"

Kate immediately dialed Esposito's phone. "Put a detail on Castle's apartment. You'll understand once you talk to Rob. Alexis and Martha are there."

"Why don't you just head over there?" He knew he would pay for that question.

"Castle and I are going to my apartment. I would rather he not be with them right now, it will be better for everyone. Now get up there and talk to Rob, he holds the key to this case."

"We are on our way as we speak. I'll call you later." She disconnected the call.

Castle could see the anger on her face. "Kate?"

"I saw the emails Rick, why didn't you tell me?"

"Because I didn't want you to freak out. Our relationship is so new, in a way. The last thing I needed you to do was freak and run again. I'm not losing you again Kate." He saw the look on her face soften a bit. She didn't respond immediately.

"No, you're not losing me, but I am concerned." They sat in silence for a few minutes before she continued. " I interviewed Stella Rigsby, AKA CastleObssessed. She is a piece of work, probably some considerable mental illness going on. She seemed to be living in her own fantasy world. She thinks she knows you and that you are in a relationship, hell she has been following you, us around. I am pretty sure she did it, but I didn't have time to pull much together. Hopefully Rob will have the information the guys need." They were arriving at her apartment and headed upstairs as the conversation continued.

"Will Alexis and mother be..."

"Safe?" She asked as she locked the door of her apartment behind them. "Yes, I am really not too worried, I just wanted to play it safe. My guess is that she followed us here. She's been following us on all of our dates." She was looking directly into his eyes. "That really pisses me off," her eyes dropped to the floor, "I thought what we had was so..."

"Whoa!" He grabbed her by the upper arms, shaking her gently back to reality. He lifted her chin that so that she was looking at him. "Don't you even go down that road! What we have is wonderful. I will not let some crazed fan try to ruin it. She changes _nothing_." He kissed her, she kissed him in return. He pulled her close, his hands running up her back. The kiss turned from a harsh, proving your love type of kiss, to a sensual, needing more type. He removed her jacket, she untucked his shirt. They left a trail of clothes to her room.  
>They needed to prove to each other that this was real, that nothing had changed in the past few hours.<p>

She laid against his chest, listening to his breathing, slowing after their lovemaking session.

He felt a cold wet tear fall against his warm skin. "Why are you crying?"

"Honestly?" He didn't respond, but she didn't expect him to. "Castle...Rick," she corrected. "I don't even know how to do this."

"Oh, I have to disagree, you are very good at this."

She smacked him playfully, "not that!" Her voice turned back to serious, but less so than it had been. "I've always kept one foot out the door in a relationship, ready to run if things got serious, or didn't. I told you last night, I'm all in, and I meant it. I just..."

"Shhh, we'll figure this out together."

His phone began to ring, he didn't recognize the number, but decided he ought to answer it. She started to sit up, he held her firmly against his chest. "Castle," he said as he answered.

"Ricky! I know what you and that bitch are doing in there." He froze, Kate felt the tension in his body and pulled away to look at him, immediately concerned.

"Who is this?"

"You know who this is and I know what you are up there doing. Leave the bitch before someone else dies!" The line went dead, the evil that had some through the line gave Rick the chills. Kate had overheard everything, she jumped up, wrapping herself in a blanket, and stepped over to the window. She was sure it had been Stella, and she had to have followed them. She moved away from the window, and dressed quickly. She picked up her phone and dialed Esposito.

"Hey, Castle just got a call on his cell, threats from Stella Rigsby."

"Threats? What did she say?"

"She said that if he didn't leave me, someone else would die."

Esposito knew that it was killing Kate to share this, knowing the implications. "We're on it."

Once Kate put her phone down, he suggested that he head home, now fully clothed as well.

"No! We know that she has been following you, you can't take her home to Alexis."

He knew she was right. "So, what do we do now?"

"We wait for Ryan and Esposito to get to the bottom of it." She plopped on to the couch with a sigh, running her hand through her hair, chewing her bottom lip.

"So what happened with Gates," he asked as he sat next to her.

"She was pretty pissed. She was about to call me on a relationship with someone within the unit until I mentioned that you were not paid and had no official standing at the precinct. That really pissed her off, so much so that she told me to take the rest of the week. I think there was probably actual steam coming from her ears," she laughed at the memory.

"Is this going to cause, uh, problems for you there?" That was the last thing he wanted. That was why he had refused to give Kate as his alibi in the first place.

"Shouldn't. You aren't an employee so it's not like she can do much. She might try to kick you to the curb again, but considering that I think she is trying to move on up and out, I doubt she will say anything. Her hands are tied and she knows that I know it. That's why she told me to take off, it was more for her to cool of."

"I was really hoping we could talk to Alexis tonight." He said, changing the subject.

"So soon?"

"Do you not want it to be soon?"

"No, that's not what I meant, of course I want it to be soon. I just..." The words trailed. she didn't need to finish, he already knew, he always knew. "Maybe we can talk to her tomorrow?"

"I'm sure we can. How soon do you want to move in?"

"Well, I have the next four days off." No sooner had she finished her sentence than her phone rang. "Hey Esposito, any news? Really? Ok, thanks."

"Any news?"

"Esposito said they were able to locate her phone. GPS puts her within the block surrounding here. They sent a couple of unis to pick her up and bring her in."

"Leave me alone, I want that bitch, get out of here. She's mine." The shouting was coming from the hallway.

"Put the gun down." Kate grabbed her weapon and went to the door. She looked through the peep hole and saw Stella outside the door a gun raised toward the end of the hallway.

Rick approached from behind and put his hand on her waist. "Get out of here!" She mouthed.

"Not a chance." He mouthed back shaking his head. She sighed.

"Look, just put the gun down and you can tell us your side of the story."

"I'll tell you my side of the story. That bitch is stealing my Ricky. She has brainwashed him, turned him against me. We've had years together. He writes it all for me you know? How dare she try to mess with what we have."

Castle started to say something and Kate immediately put her hand to his mouth, shaking her head.

"Put the gun down and we can talk."

"No, I am going in there and getting my man. That bitch can't have him." She turned toward the door as she said it, giving the officer just enough time to knock the gun from her hand and slam her against the door, startling the two watching from the other side. "Ricky, I know you hear me. Ricky come out here and save me! Ricky?" She continued yelling down the hallway.

The other officer knocked on the door. Kate opened it. "You guys ok? I assume you must be Detective Beckett?" He said, nodding toward the gun, still in her hand.

"Yes, I am and yes, we are both fine. Thank you." She closed the door and then closed her eyes as Rick pulled her back to the bedroom.

"Let's get some sleep, we will have a lot of moving to do over the next few days." She acquiesced and followed him to her room. She changed into boxers and a tank. while he stripped down to his boxers. They crawled into bed, she snuggled up to his side, laying her head against his chest.

"So, how much of my laptop did you go through?"

"I wasn't there for much of it, just the files on Castle Obsessed."

"Oh, ok, good."

"Why, is there something you don't want me to see? Letters to your lovers?" She said in a half-joking manner.

"Not exactly. I just have a journal of sorts."

"And you don't want me to read about your past escapades."

"Kate, I know that you've had this view of me as a playboy. I'm not going to deny that there was a time when that was a true image, but I haven't been with anyone for a while now."

"Not even during those three months?" She asked. Where was this jealousy coming from? She knew he had a past, but so did she. "I'm sorry, that wasn't fair." She sighed slightly ashamed. She didn't think he had dated anyone, but it would be nice to hear him say it. She decided the time had finally come to reveal a sort of secret. "Josh and I broke up after the shooting."

"Yes, I know, you've told me." He was more than a little confused. She had stated this like it was an admission of guilt, but she had told him about their breakup months ago.

"No, I mean right after. The day you came to see me and I told you I needed space?" He nodded acknowledging that he remembered. "You walked in just after I had broken it off."

"So when you asked for space, it had nothing to do with Josh?"

"Is that what you thought? I wanted space from you so I could be with him?" His eyes faltered. "Oh Rick, that wasn't it at all. When you told me you loved me it scared me. I had all this stuff going on. The shooting, Montgomery's death, my mom's case, I just didn't think I could handle anything else. I broke it off with Josh because I couldn't lie anymore. I had been lying to him, to you, to myself for months. But, I wasn't ready to jump into another relationship."

"I know." He let the silence linger a moment. "Look the files I didn't want you to see had nothing to do with another woman. They had to do with you. I started it a while back. I needed to get my feelings about you out, before I did something stupid. I knew where you stood and that you needed time and space. I didn't want to pressure you, but I couldn't help my feelings. Working with you was so hard at times. I can't count how many times I just wanted to grab your hand or kiss your lips. Sometimes it was completely overwhelming. So, I did what I do best, I wrote. I poured everything into a journal that I kept on my laptop."

"Some day, when you are comfortable with it, I would love to read what you've written."

"Of course." Silence and darkness enveloped them, and before either of them knew it, they drifted off to sleep

They were awakened at nine the next morning with a phone call to Kate's cell.

"Beckett," she said, trying to fake alertness. "Ok, thanks Ryan."

"He was just calling to tell us that they had a confession and had booked her, charged with first degree murder."

"I'm not ready to get out of bed yet." He said, not acknowledging what she had told him. "Just come back over here."

She smiled and settled back into his arms. They laid together, slowly waking, enjoying the feel of being in one another's arms. "Shower?"

"Thought you'd never ask."

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><p>Please take a minute to review, I have several more chapters planned, am I getting too long winded?<p> 


	11. Chapter 11: Games

A/N: Thanks for the reviews, I do plan to respond to each of you individually very soon. I am glad that you are enjoying, and I will continue on with my plan since now one thought this was going too long.

Disclaimer: I don't own them

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><p>Chapter 11- Games<p>

"Hey Alexis!"

"Hey dad, Detective Beckett. I was just about to head out, meeting up with Jessica and a couple of others."

"Do you have a couple of minutes before you go? Kate and I would like to talk with you."

"Um, yah, sure. Let me text them and tell them I'm running late." She sent the text as she was talking. "So, what did you want to talk to me about?"

"Well, I told you Kate and I were dating."

"Yeah, a few days ago."

Had it only been a few days? "Right, well, there has been a development in our relationship."

"Oh God, don't tell me you two are pregnant!"

"What? No, not that kind of development." Kate had to chuckle inwardly at the look on both of their faces. "No, I have asked Kate to move in with us. Look, I know it is..."

"Fast? Look dad," Alexis interrupted. "It's fast, yes, but even though you all never wanted to admit it, you've been together for a long time. It's your house, you don't have to get my permission."

"Alexis, I want you to be comfortable with me here. If you aren't, say the word and we won't take this step."

"Detecti...Kate, I have seen my dad with a lot of women. Some have been around a while, and things were serious, some weren't. In all the years, with all of those women, I have never seen him as in love with anyone. When he gets a phone call from you, his eyes light up. You call about dead bodies, so the fact that he lights up only has to do with you. Anyone who has spent ten minutes with you two together knows that you are made for each other. Your moving in will make him happy, and after seeing how torn up he was when you took that time away after the shooting, he deserves to be happy." Alexis smiled at them both. "I need to go. Are you moving in today?"

"Well... um..I ...yah, I guess I am." _Why was she stuttering?_

"Great, I'll be back in time for dinner; maybe we can all go out and celebrate? Unless you want the evening alone?"

"I think dinner with my two favorite girls sounds like a wonderful way to celebrate."

"I agree."

"Bye Kate, bye dad, I'll see you both later." With that, she bounded out the door and was off for a day with friends.

"I always forget how grown up she is."

"Rick, you've raised a wonderful daughter."

He blushed. "Why thank you! Now, let's head back over to your place and pick up whatever you want to bring over."

They headed to Kate's and picked up her belongings. She had decided to only move only her clothes, necessities, and a few personal items. "Are you sure this is all?"

"Let's give it a few weeks to make sure that everything works out. If it does, which I'm sure it will, then I will consider subletting or selling my apartment."

"I thought you were all in?" He asked, slightly hurt that she wasn't moving everything.

"I am all in. But there are more people to think about than just you and I."

"Alexis?"

"Yes, I want this to be ok for her. She may have said it was, and I believe her, but I know that this may be harder than she thinks." Leave it to Kate to always think about everyone else's happiness before her own. They finished packing the few boxes, and started moving them over to Rick's loft. They had stopped for lunch on the way back, now he was helping her to unpack her things.

She wondered how long he had known they would reach this step. He had already made plenty of room for her in the massive walk in closet. He had even brought in a second chest of drawers for her. They started by putting away her clothes, they chatted some but were intent on the task before them

He looked into a box that was sitting in front of the bed and found a photo of Kate and her mom. He set it on the nightstand on her side of the bed. He was so excited that his bed was now _their _bed and that there was a _her_side of the bed.

"This all seems so surreal," she said, catching the look in his eyes.

"Tell me about it. I've dreamed of..." He hadn't wanted that to come out.

"Really?"

"Of course. I can't tell you how many times I wished we were leaving the precinct and heading home together."

"I can't say it never crossed my mind."

They continued unpacking and adding things of Kate's around the apartment. Castle brought a glass of wine in to Kate as she was finishing the last box. "So, are you feeling settled at all?"

"A little, it will just take some getting used to."

"Kate, I want to make sure that you know that this is your place now too." He said as he settled a key to the apartment in her hand. If you want or need anything please tell me. I can't tell you how truly excited I am that you are here."

She leaned in to kiss him. She knew this is where she wanted to be.

"Dad? Kate?"

"We're in here," Rick shouted after breaking off their kiss.

She entered the room cautiously, not wanting to see anything that she would have to try to forget she saw.

"So my dearest ladies," he said, standing and indicating the two of them. "What would the two of you care to do for dinner? We can go out, be fancy, go casual, or have a night in? What ever would please the two of you."

"Having been out all day, I wouldn't mind a night in, but whatever Kate wants is fine with me."

"I'd have to agree with Alexis, a night in would be fabulous. Maybe play a few games?"

"Pizza it is then? I'll go make the call. "Why don't you two figure out a game for us to play? Poker's out though," he added with a wink toward Kate.

"Come on Kate, let's go pick out a few games." They two of them rifled through the extensive collections of games. Kate shouldn't be surprised; she knew that money had not been an object for Rick and that he had supplied his daughter with everything a child could want.

"What about Scrabble?"

"Now that could get interesting! I never play with dad, he's far too good, but I bet you would provide some good competition."

"Maybe we should start with something else; I may need to warm up on my board game skills. I played all the time growing up, but I don't think I've played anything since my mom died." Normally uttering those words would immediately depress her, but tonight, oddly enough, it did nothing.

"How about Monopoly? We can ever gang up against him!"

"I think that sounds like a wonderful idea."

"Did you two ladies find a game that interested you?"

"We were thinking a game of Monopoly followed by a game of scrabble between the two of you. I'll be the dictionary queen while Kate kicks your butt!"

"Well, well, why is it that I feel like I may be losing all the games tonight?"

"Because, Castle, you are!" Kate chimed in.

Kate had been nervous that this first night might be awkward, but she was quickly realizing that they would find their new normal faster than she had thought.

"You guys set up the board and I will be back with a soda for the little lady and wine for those of us over 21." Castle left the girls to set up the game board, returning shortly with three wine glasses, one with soda, two with a bottle he had been saving for a while.

"Now, I know that I'm the young one here, but I'd like to propose a toast." Alexis started with a little speech. "I just want you to both know how happy I am for you guys. Dad, I haven't seen you so happy, ever. Kate, the way you look at my dad, I can see how deep your feelings are for him. I look forward to having you live with us." She raised her glass and both Kate and Rick did the same.

"Thank you Alexis. It means a lot to me that you are comfortable with my staying here. I hope that if that were to change, you would feel comfortable telling me." Kate gave Alexis a warm hug.

"Alexis, Kate, I want you both to know that the two of you have made me that happiest man alive." He let his words sink in, because he meant them to the very depths of his soul. "Now, let's get to playing before we all get far too emotional! I call the race car!"

Alexis explained to Kate that dad was always the race car. Neither one of them knew why, but he was the race car and she was the thimble. He had always joked that she had an old soul, so the thimble always seemed appropriate. "Pick your piece," Alexis said to Kate, holding out the tub containing the pieces.

She felt the pressure and decided to go with the shoe.

"Interesting choice Kate," Castle said in response to her selection.

"I figure, I've spent far too many days running, so I chose the shoe to remind myself that I need not run any longer." The answer effectively shut Castle up for a while. There was plenty he wanted to say and ask, but it was a conversation he wanted to carry in private.

The doorbell rang and Castle went to answer it, he paid the pizza guy and took the pizzas from him, setting the two boxes on the counter. "I wasn't sure what kind you two would want so I went with half cheese, half pepperoni, and a supreme. Kate, what's your preference?"

"I'd like a supreme please."

He loaded a plate with two slices of supreme. "Alexis, can I assume you want one cheese and one pepperoni, per your usual?" Alexis nodded, taking her already prepared plate from her dad. He placed a pepperoni and a supreme onto his plate and they headed back to the dining room to start the game.

The game went on for over an hour. Kate and Alexis had certainly ganged up on Rick. He was barely hanging on as they owned, and had hotels on nearly every corner of the game board. With one final roll of the dice he landed on Marvin Gardens, and the price of rent was far more than he had. He conceded defeat.

"Well, you know I never really had a chance," he whined. "You two started ganging up on me from the beginning."

"That was pretty much the plan," Kate grinned ear to ear, she had had such a good time teaming with Alexis.

Alexis giggled in the background. She was going to love having Kate around to put her dad in his place.

"Well, now we'll see who comes out on top. Scrabble is my game, no one dares defeat me."

"You know how much I love a challenge, but I'm not so shabby at this game myself."

"Ladies first," he stated after they had the game set up and had drawn their pieces. She knew she would have to be on top of her game tonight."

"Jukebox. Double letter on the J, plus the double word, plus the 50 point bonus for using all my letters brings my score to 120," Kate announced proudly.

"Oh my God, my dad is going to lose at Scrabble!" Alexis was so excited.

"Oh, this game is so on!" As he studied his letters V-N-X-E-O-B-C, the best he could come up with was convex. At least the V was a triple letter. "Convex, with a triple letter on the V, brings my score to a whopping 26." He already sounded defeated. "This is going to be fun." He mumbled grumpily. Clearly, he was not used to losing at Scrabble.

They continued to play and Rick came close to catching up to her score. He ended the game with 327 to her 409. His ego had been completely demolished.

"Kate, I may have been glad that you moved in before, but you have no idea how happy it makes me to know that there is finally someone in this house that can cream my dad in Scrabble."

"Did I forget to mention that my mom, dad, and I would play this every night from the time I was in junior high on? I must say though, it feels nice to beat a writer at the game."

"Settle down ladies, it was just one game. I demand a rematch!"

"Well, it's starting to get late and I am pretty sure that the two of you could battle it out all night, so I am just going to leave now and get some sleep." Alexis walked to her dad and gave him a kiss, then over to Kate for a hug.

"Goodnight sweetie. We'll see you in the morning." His eyes followed her up the stairs. "Now, we are going to have a rematch, and I am going to beat the pants off of you!"

"Oh you think so? How about a little wager?"

"Ok, if I beat the pants off of you, I get to take you out on the town all day tomorrow, no complaints that I can't buy anything I want for you, no "my money/your money arguments."

"And if I win?" She asked.

"It doesn't matter because I am going to win." They settled in for another game and it was cutthroat the entire game. Rick started with the lead, Kate quickly surpassed him. The back and forth went on for over an hour. They were each down to a single letter, Kate sat with 347 points, and Rick had 345. She placed her last letter, adding 6 points giving her a final score of 353.

He dropped his face. "You have got to be kidding me, this is my game, I don't lose!" He paused and saw her getting excited. He placed his final letter, a 'P', onto the board beside an 'O' to form 'OP'. The two letter word scored him nine points, since the 'P' was on a double letter square. "Well, looky there Detective Beckett, I do believe that I beat the pants off of you as I said I would. That entitles me to a day of lavishing you."

She knew going into the game that she would win either way; the wager was all about making her happy whether she won or lost. Her choice to place her 'B' in front of the already formed 'IT' instead of in front of the 'Y' had been made simply to save Rick's pride. "You keep promising that you are going to "beat the pants off of me" and yet, I still have them on."

It took Rick no time to catch on to that remark. He picked her up, basically slinging her over his shoulder and took her to their room. He wasted no time in removing said pants, and enjoyed the next couple of hours following.

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><p>Please review, it makes my day!<p> 


	12. Chapter 12: Everything

A/N: I hope you aren't too disappointed but I had to move time forward to get on with the story, so we don't get to see the date he won. We will however get to see some more fluffy moments in the next several chapters. In fact, be warned, most of what is ahead for a while is pure fluff!

Disclaimer-, I don't own them :(

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><p>Chapter 12: Everything<p>

As fall morphed into winter, the couple had continued working together. As Kate had said, there really wasn't much Captain Gates could do about their relationship. While this made her furious in the beginning, she began to see that the two were in even better sync with one another and they were solving cases left and right. They maintained a professional relationship during work hours and were learning not to bring their work home. Rick was learning how to compartmentalize from Kate, and she was learning how not to from him. It was a balancing act, but one that they were becoming quite adept at.

Martha quickly realized after Kate moved in that it was time to move back out onto her own two feet. After the incident at the bank, she was 'miraculously' approved for a bigger loan at a better interest rate, which afforded her the opportunity to remodel the apartment that was attached to the back of her new dance studio.

Alexis and Ashley had broken things off. It had taken her a few days to get past the pain, but she was able to focus on what she wanted. She, Kate, and Castle poured over various universities, toured more than a handful and she had finally decided that the Berklee College of Music in Boston would be that best fit. She had long been interested in music, and had a natural talent. She had narrowed down her major choices to Music Performance, Composition, and Film Scoring. She would be starting in January. Rick had already found a small apartment near campus for her to stay while there. While a four hour drive would separate dad and daughter, at least it wouldn't require a plane ticket every time she needed to see him, or vice versa.

Christmas was here. Kate was nervous about the impending celebrations. For more years than she cared to admit, she had volunteered to work all of the major holidays. Other than her dad, she hadn't had any family with which to share the time, so she figured, she'd take the shift so that some dad, or mom, could take the time off. This year, she hadn't been on the volunteer list. It wasn't completely out of the question that she could be paged if too many bodies dropped, but she had Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off.

She was excited about the thought of spending the time with Rick and the rest of their family, but she was apprehensive none the less. She had found it easy to shop for everyone, except Rick. She wanted his gift to be extra special, and while she had looked for just the right gift for weeks, she had yet to find it, and she was running out of time as today was Christmas Eve.

"Girl, he is going to love anything you give him. Hell, he gets all excited every time you give him the "gift" of a dead body and case that he can help with," Lanie knew her friend had struggled with this gift. They had been in and out of nearly every shop in all of New York over the course of the past three weeks, all in search of this _perfect,_albeit elusive,gift.

"Ok, let's head into this last store and I promise, I will get him something, even if it is something dumb." As she perused the store, the idea suddenly came to her. She went up to the clerk and asked to be directed to the games section of the store. It took her no time to locate the item.

She and Lanie grabbed a quick lunch and then parted ways. Kate hurried home to begin wrapping her the gifts she had bought.

Later that evening, after a delicious meal cooked, and enjoyed together, the family sat down around the fireplace. Alexis and her dad had a tradition going back as far as she could remember of exchanging one small gift on Christmas Eve. It had started off as one toy for her, and one handmade item from her. As the years passed, they usually gave something unusual, something that held a story. Both father and daughter had kept a collection for the past several years.

Kate was grateful to be invited into this intimate family moment. She knew of the tradition and was prepared with a gift for each of them.

"Dad," Alexis started as he began to unwrap the first gift of the evening. "This year has been one of change. I have watched you go from a lovesick teenager to...ok, well, I'm not sure you aren't still a lovesick teenager." Both of the girls giggled, while Castle put a hand to his heart as though wounded. "I see the happiness that you have found in Kate, and I'm glad that there will be someone to take care of you once I leave in a few weeks." He had completely unwrapped the package but hadn't opened the box, they always waited until the story was complete to peek inside. "This should help you finish the story the two of you are starting."

He opened the box and found an antique fountain pen. "Thank you sweetheart."

Then Alexis handed Kate a slightly larger package. She followed Castle's lead and unwrapped the gift as Alexis began the story.

"Kate, you came into my dad's life and changed him at a time when he needed it most. It was past time for him to grow up, and there didn't seem much hope of that until you came along. I know how much of a handful he can be. He makes you so mad you want to shoot him at times, and laugh uncontrollably at other times. I am finally passing the torch to you. You get to be the one to keep him in line. In order to do so, I thought you might need a little something."

Kate opened the box to see a small purple water gun. "Thank you so much Alexis. Now I really can shoot him and not have to worry about being behind bars afterward." The women hugged.

"Ok, my turn." Castle said, in true toddler fashion. "Alexis, you have always been the leading lady in my life. I want to make sure that you know that even though Kate is here, you are still my little girl. So, to remind you of that as you head off to college, I present you with..."

"Annie!"

"I know that was one of your favorites when you were a little girl, and I caught you watching it on TV the other day, so I thought you needed to have a copy to take with you to college."

"Thanks dad, I love you." She said as she hugged him and gave him a kiss.

"I love you too, Alexis." He picked up another package and handed it to Kate. "Kate, I have spent most of the last three years chasing you as you tried to run. Together we have tackled a wall that made Berlin's look small and weak. I know you are a runner and a builder and probably always will be, but hopefully the tools inside will help."

She opened the box and pulled out a compass. "So that you can always find your way back," he said with a tenderness he usually didn't display. She pulled out the next item, it was a lego door. "So that when you build a wall, you remember to add a door to let in the people that love you most."

Kate's eyes welled with tears. She leaned over to kiss him and whispered "I love you."

Kate took a deep breath, trying to stuff her emotions down. "Alexis, here is your gift from me." Alexis began unwrapping the gift. "I have gotten to know you so much better in the past year. You are such a sweet and responsible young lady. You have opened your home and heart to me. As I thought about what to get your for tonight, I decided that because you whole-heartedly shared this tradition with me, that I wanted to share a tradition of my own. From the time I was a newborn, my mother always bought me a Christmas book. We would read it together Christmas Eve, while sharing a cup of hot cocoa. It is one of the greatest memories I had with my mom." Alexis opened the box to find the story of _A Night Before Christmas_. "This is the same book my mother gave me for my first Christmas, and to this day, one of my favorites."

"Thank you Kate, that really means a lot to me." She gave the woman a hug. "After dad opens his gift, I'll go make some hot chocolate and we can read together."

Kate paused, inhaling deeply. "Rick, you have been the most difficult person on my shopping list this year! What to buy the man that has everything...Lanie and I must have gone to nearly every store in town. Today though, I finally found the perfect gift, both for tonight and for tomorrow." She had to keep it light or she was going to cry. There was a small fear in her eyes. "Castle, since the moment we met, you have been at my side, following me around, sharing your theories, engaging me in as much child's play as you can get out of me. In a sense though, our relationship started and built itself around words, language. The innuendos, the double entendres, the literary references that few others would understand." He slowly unwrapped the box as she spoke, never tearing his eyes from hers. "Rick, my gift to you is a book of words. One you have no doubt read through more times than you can count." He opened the box to see a dictionary. "We have been in a stage of definitions lately. Defining who we are as individuals, as a couple, even as a family." She smiled at Alexis. "We may never have a definition that can be put into words, but maybe, somewhere along the road this book will help us."

Rick thumbed through the pages, noticing a few highlighted words here and there. While he could spend hours looking through and finding each words she felt was important enough to highlight, he would save that for another time. "Kate, next to the gift of yourself this is the best gift you could have given me, thank you." He leaned in for a kiss, nothing dramatic, just a short, sweet, innocent kiss. After all, Alexis was sitting right there.

"I will go make the hot chocolate, and then we can read."

Once Alexis had left the room, the tears Kate had been holding in were running down her face. "Come here," he said, gently wiping the tears from his eyes. "Kate, I hope you know how much I love you."

"I do." It was barely a whisper of two small words. The meaning behind those words would never be found in his dictionary, but he was pretty sure he could already feel the meaning within his heart.

Alexis carefully balanced the three mugs of hot chocolate, handing her dad and Kate one, and saving the other for herself. They were still on the floor in front of the fire. Rick grabbed a throw from the couch and covered the ladies. He stood, opened the book and began reading. "Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse."

Alexis snuggled into Kate's side, Kate put an arm around the young lady's shoulder. Together they listened to the master story teller. By the end of the story, Alexis had actually fallen asleep. They gentle woke her, and helped her to her bedroom.

"You ready for bed? I know I'm worn out after today's shopping excursion followed by the wrapping marathon."

"After you," he said, sweeping his arm toward their bedroom door.

Kate and Rick slept cuddled into one another. Kate stirred to the smell of bacon wafting through the loft. "Mmmm..."

"My thoughts exactly," he said as he started caressing her beneath the covers. "Ouch! What was that for?" He asked in regards to the semi-playful slap to his hand.

"I meant the food and you know it. Now get up and go help your daughter, she shouldn't spend her morning cooking breakfast alone. I will be out in a few minutes."

He left the room with a pout. Kate took a few minutes to shower, and dress for the day. When she finally came out to join the others, she saw the feast before her. "Wow, I don't even know what to say! How can three of us possibly eat that much?"

"Well your dad and Gram will be joining us soon," Alexis said to Kate, smiling for the compliment she had just been given. "Dad, you might want to change, you look like you just fell out of bed."

"That's because I did, well, it was more like I was shoved out of bed after being assaulted by a police officer."

"Police Detective, thank you very much, and you are fine, you big baby!" Kate loved the banter the two shared.

Alexis answered the door when the doorbell rang a few moments later. She was greeted exuberantly by her grandmother, and with a warm hug from Kate's dad.

"Well, look who finally arrived. We've been waiting hours," Rick said as he entered the room.

"Oh shush you now," Martha responded.

The five sat down to enjoy a lovely breakfast together. They sat around chatting until the child of the family wanted to open gifts.

"Pleeeease, can we move to the good stuff?" Castle truly was the child of the group.

"My goodness, Richard Castle, how old are you?" His mother scolded. Then she turned to Kate and her father. "This has always been his favorite part, watching people open the gifts he has chosen for them."

"Well?" He asked, clearly not relenting his position that opening gifts should begin immediately.

"Ok, Castle, we get the point! Let's open the gifts before we get the gift of a headache from a whiny kid," Kate said, all in good fun.

They passed out the gifts and each of them opened each item. Martha had been lavished with beautiful clothes, jewelry, and an impressive art piece for her studio. Alexis had received many household items to put in her new apartment. Jim was given a variety of items including a few books, sweaters, and a gift certificate for dinner. Rick, ever the kid at heart, was given a lot of toys and electronic gadgets. Kate had been given mostly clothing and jewelry. Rick and Kate decided to exchange their gifts later, privately.

The festivities continued throughout the morning. By late afternoon, Jim had left and Martha was preparing to leave. "Gram, do you think I could stay the night with you? We haven't had a girls night in a while."

"Well darling, it is Christmas, so you will have to clear that one with your father."

Castle was torn. On one hand it was Christmas and he wanted to spend it with his daughter, but on the other hand, it was his first Christmas with Kate and he relished the thought of an evening alone. "Well, I suppose I am going to have to get used to you not being here all the time."

"Thank you dad!" Alexis bounded up the stairs to her bedroom and packed a bag for the evening. She gave both Kate and Castle a kiss on the cheek and a warm hug as she left for the evening.

"I guess, we have the evening to ourselves," Castle said with a smirk. "Glass of wine?"

"I'd love one, thanks." Kate headed back to the living room to wait for Rick. He returned shortly with a glass of wine in each hand. She took the glass and patted the couch beside her, encouraging him to sit down with her.

"Kate, I'd like to give you my gifts now." He had a not so small pile of gifts. As she unwrapped each one, she discovered a couple of casual outfits, a couple of formal dresses, and several pieces of jewelry. As she came to the last package, and by far the largest, she discovered a duffel bag inside. "Look inside," he said with the most adorable look in his eye. It reminded her of a small child giving a parent something they had spent weeks making.

"Oh Rick, I don't know what to say." Inside she found a set of plane tickets. The departing flight was dated January 17th and the return date was February 7th. Rick had bought them tickets to Italy. "I...um..."

"I know you have the time, I talked to Ryan and Esposito and no one else out of Homicide is scheduled for those days. I thought about talking to Gates, but figured that would most likely backfire considering how 'highly' she thinks of me." No matter how hard he tried to impress the Captain, she tough shell was impenetrable by his charm. "Please tell me you'll come with me?"

"Of course, how could I possibly say no?" He pulled her in for a kiss, but could feel an element of hesitation.

He pulled back, concern in his eyes. "Kate? If you don't like it..."

"No, of course I like it, I just...This is all so extravagant, and my gift is the complete opposite."

"You are more than enough of a gift for me." She looked at him with doubting eyes. "Are you going to make me wait all night or can I open my gifts now?"

She was hesitant, but there was really no way out. "Ok, you can open the smaller ones in any order you wish, but that larger one must be last.

He began unwrapping the gifts. The first held a single scrabble tile, "O". He wasn't sure what to say, so instead he began to unwrap another. Each package he opened contained a single scrabble tile. There were 17 small packages. He was left with 17 letters: S, M, A, N, N, W, D, O, Y, E, N, D, A, Y, A, L. He moves the letters around on the coffee table trying to spell out various words. After about 5 minutes, he has it figured out.

"MY ONE AND DONE ALWAYS." He looked into Kate's eyes. She could see the look in his eyes.

"Please, open the last one." He did as she requested and found a Scrabble board. He noticed the writing on the back.

_My Castle,_

_I never thought that I could feel the way I do. You came into my life at a time when I didn't even know how badly I needed someone. It wasn't long after we met that I told you I was a 'one and done' type of girl. I've spent so much of my time over the past 3 and a half years trying to push you away. My brain kept telling me to run in the opposite direction, while my heart was screaming to run TO you, not away from you. I've always been a thinker, where the brain always outweighs the heart. Somewhere during the past few years, you have helped me to listen to my heart. My heart is now taking the lead._

_You, Rick, are my one and done._

_Always,_

_Your Kate_

He turned the board over and glued to the board were the same 17 letters he had arranged on the coffee table. Kate was clearly worried about his reaction to her gift. She had been chewing her lower lip the whole time he was opening it. "Kate, this is the best gift you ever could have given me. From the bottom of my soul..." He leaned in and kissed her, hoping that through the kiss she would understand that she couldn't have given him anything more.

"I'm glad you like it. You are impossible to shop for, I think you have everything."

"_Now_ I have everything, I have you."

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><p>I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please review and let me know what you think!<p> 


	13. Chapter 13: Preparations

A/N: I know that the Alexis send off should have been much longer since it was such a major event, but I just couldn't get it right, so I decided to move along to the trip since I prefer the romantic fluff over sad goodbyes anyway ;) I hope you enjoy this one! I have been given such great words of encouragement from so many of you, and they are much appreciated.

Disclaimer: still don't own them

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><p>Chapter 13: Preparations<p>

The next three weeks passed in a flash. Alexis was off to school and settled into her new apartment. She, Rick, and Kate had gone shopping once in Boston to make sure Alexis had everything she could possibly need. She had more food than she could eat in a month, and her dad had left plenty of cash in a little safe in case she needed anything while Rick and Kate were out of the country. They had said their goodbyes, and promised daily updates.

Kate had had to drag Rick from the apartment. He had cried most of the way back to New York; his baby had just left the nest that he had spent the past 18 years creating for her. Kate had known it would hit him hard, so she was grateful that they would be leaving for vacation soon and hoped that would take his mind off of things a bit.

They had spent the next three days getting prepared for their trip which had included plenty of retail therapy. Kate had to be careful what she looked at. If her eyes gazed too long at any item, Rick had insisted on buying it for her. He had already spent a small fortune and everything she would be taking on the trip was brand new. She still didn't like him spending his money on her, but she had learned it was far easier to graciously accept than to try to fight him on it.

Rick had planned every detail of the trip, except an itinerary. Kate had insisted that they not be on a schedule. Rick had spared no expense on this trip either; it was going to be five stars all the way. They were going to spend three weeks living in the lap of luxury. They had planned to spend a week in Rome, a week in Venice and a week in a quaint Tuscan village.

This would be the first real vacation Kate had had in years. She and her parents used to travel some, but not like this. She hadn't ventured too far from the city since she joined the academy. In fact, she had never taken more than a couple of voluntary days off during her time on the force.

Today was her last day at the precinct for nearly four weeks. They would be flying out tomorrow. Rick had wanted her to take today off too, and while she had the time, she wasn't sure her nerves could handle it. She had to keep busy, that was who she was.

She was wrapping up the paperwork she had been working on all day. She had to tie up all the loose ends on the recently closed cases.

"Hey boss, you about to leave?" Esposito asked.

"Yep, I just finished everything here, now to finish everything at home."

"Well, hope you have a good trip. After the ringer you've been put through in the past couple of years, you certainly deserve a break." Ryan had chimed into the conversation as well.

This was all a little awkward for all of them. Kate was always at work, always. "I guess we will see you in about a month. Don't let Castle have it too easy on this trip." Esposito said.

"Yeah, keep him on his toes," Ryan concurred. The family of her team was not a touchy feely group, but both Ryan and Esposito gave her a hug and wished her well.

"Behave yourselves while I'm gone, and don't let Gates replace me." She gathered her purse and coat and headed out of the building. The cold air hit her in the face as she stepped into the arctic air. Temperatures in New York had been hitting all time lows and she was more than anxious to get to Italy and some more mild temps. They were having one of their warmest winters on record, and while it would still be chilly, especially in the evenings, at least the temps were forecasted to be in the low 60s for the first leg of the trip.

She hailed a Taxi and headed home. It was still a concept that she reveled in. She had a place to live before moving in with Castle, but she didn't realize that she hadn't had a true _home_since her mother's death. Rick had provided that for her. Not only a physical home, but a home within himself as well.

"Hey, great day of paperwork?" He asked as she walked in the door. He pulled her into a warm embrace, with a tender kiss to her warm lips. She was home, where she knew she would forever be. "I've missed you today!"

"You know how much I love paperwork. I would have been home just after lunch but I was having this problem focusing. Between the hundred texts..." she gave him a slight glare, "and the daydreams about the trip, I'm not entirely sure how productive I was."

"I think we are all set. I double checked all of our reservations and flights, made sure the car service would be here by 1:30."

She couldn't help but smile. "I have all of my stuff packed." He nodded, he had already double and triple checked their bags. Not that it would be a problem to pick up anything that they might have forgotten. "Why don't we order in tonight and make it an early night. I have a feeling that you are going to need to distract my mind so that it can relax enough to sleep. The excitement is killing me!"

"Oh, I can think of a few things to distract you with." His tone was sultry, husky, and there was the dark look in his eyes that always gave away his intentions.

"I know," she said in an equally sexy voice.

He had a glass of wine poured for her already; he went to retrieve it and to call an order into their favorite Chinese place. He found Kate in the middle of the couch. She always sat in the middle when she wanted cuddle time and on the end when she wanted space. He was pretty sure it was completely subconscious, but he knew an invitation when he saw one.

"Thanks," she said taking the glass from his hand.

He raised his glass in a toast. It had become a little habit, and it was one she loved. "To us?"

"Always," came her reply. He sat down beside her, draped his arm over her shoulder and she moved over closer, leaning against his body. This was their typical evening arrangement. Sometimes they talked, sometimes they watched TV, sometimes they just sat in a comfortable silence. He could tell this would be a comfortable silence kind of night. They sat, each sipping their wine, each lost in their own thoughts, yet lost together within the same world.

The ringing of the doorbell startled them both. Castle wriggled out from beneath Kate to answer the door. He paid the driver and then set the table. He thought he would make this a nice little romantic dinner, even if it was just takeout. He had just finished setting the plates of food out when Kate came in. She noticed the effort he had put into their quick, cheap meal. The candles had added such a sweet touch. "What did I do to deserve you?" She had asked the question silently so many times. She couldn't believe she had asked it out loud, blushing slightly as she realized what she had said.

"I'm not sure what either of us did to deserve each other, but obviously we did something right." He smiled a very genuine smile at her. The type that came when he wasn't being silly but was being completely sincere. "Have a seat," he said, pulling the chair away from the table for her. He was always a gentleman. His mother had definitely taught him well in that regard.

"So, anything interesting happen today?" He asked.

"Not really. Gates did her best to avoid every one. No new cases had come in when I left. Esposito and Ryan did go pick up a guy from that nail salon case from a week ago. There was finally a hit on his credit card so they were able to track him down. Otherwise, just a boring day of paperwork, you didn't miss much."

"Oh, how wrong you are, I missed so much," he said with a wink as she blushed slightly. "I got a little ahead on my writing, between finalizing everything." He had a deadline for the week after they got back, and Kate knew that he would likely need to spend some of their vacation writing. "I really don't want to spend the trip locked away writing, but I may need to do a little." He was hopeful that this wouldn't upset her too much.

"It's ok, it will give me a chance to catch a nap, or wander the shops alone. You know that I relish _some_time away." He knew this all too well. When she had first moved in, she would go out every few days to walk the park on her own. He had always let her, and never made her feel guilty for it. In fact, it usually worked to his advantage because it helped her work out her feelings and made it less likely for her to build any more walls. He had noticed though that she had ventured out alone less in the past few weeks.

"You know that any time you need time away, I'm ok with that, right?" He never wanted her to feel closed in.

"I know, and you have no idea how much I appreciate that." He knew a couple of the guys she had dated had smothered her, and in turn driven her away. He had absolutely no intention of making the same mistake.

They finished their meal discussing some of the things they wanted to do while in Italy. They had both done research and had a small list of things to do. They had conceded though to the fact that the priority was just to be there. To just _be_with each other, taking it all in.

Rick stood and collected the dishes. He washed, she dried. It was their routine most of the time. They had a dishwasher but with it being just the two of them, they didn't feel it was necessary.

"Are you ready to distract me for a while?" Kate asked knowingly.

"I most certainly am. Why don't you go start a bath for us? I will take this trash out so that we don't come home to the smell of three week old Chinese."

"Ok, but don't take too long." She said as she turned to walk to their room. It was still a little hard for her to think of this as theirs instead of just as his.

She began filling the large jacuzzi tub with warm water. This tub was her new haven after a long, hard case. Sometimes she would use it for time alone, other times it was for both of them. She added the cherry scented bubble bath that she knew drives him wild and she lit the candles they had set up weeks ago. She set her iphone in the dock and pulled up a playlist of her favorite classical music.

Castle walked in and his heart soared. There were few sights that took his breath away, and Katherine Beckett, naked in a tub of bubbles, lit only by candles was a scene that did it every time. A part of him wanted to just stand there watching her, but the other part wanted to be with her, needed to be with her. He walked to the tub and set the two glasses of wine he was carrying on the tub ledge. After removing his clothes, he climbed in behind her; she leaned back onto his chest.

Their time in the tub was sensual, but not sexual, that would come later. Tub time was a time to fully relax into each other. Tender kisses and gentle caresses were freely given and joyfully received. The soft music filled what would have been silence, for this was not a time to share with words, this was a time to share with touch. Neither was sure how much time had passed, but without a word, Rick stood, offering his hand to Kate to help her from the tub. He dried her body and she dried his, together they moved to the bedroom.

He spent the next hour distracting her from the excitement of the trip and filling her with excitement of another kind. Eventually they both collapsed into one another's arms.

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><p>Please leave a review, it helps "feed the animals," lol!<p> 


	14. Chapter 14: When in Rome

A/N: Sorry this chapter took so long. I kept changing it because I couldn't get it how I wanted it. I hope what I have ended up with works.

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><p>Chapter 14: When in Rome<p>

The sound of the alarm startled them both awake, somehow they had managed to sleep until ten o'clock, which they had both decided was the latest they should sleep in. "Just think, tomorrow we will be waking up half way around the world." He whispered with a kiss to her temple.

"I can't wait."

They got up, showered, and dressed. She had decided upon skinny jeans with a white cashmere sweater, he sported navy slacks with a lighter blue oxford style dress shirt. While she finished her hair and makeup, Rick headed to the kitchen to make some coffee. He brought hers to the bathroom just as she was putting the final touches on her makeup.

"Katherine," he rarely used her formal name, but every time he did, she melted for she knew that with the formality came a level of sincerity that he didn't display every day. "You look stunning." A playful glint took over his eyes. "I'm going to be fighting men off of you this whole trip if you go around looking like that the entire time."

She turned and leaned in to kiss him. She knew she looked good, but Rick always saw more than she did. "Thank you." It had taken her a while to just accept the compliment without a self deprecating comment being made in return.

"Let's run out for a bite of lunch at the little cafe around the corner. By the time we get done there, it should be just about time to leave."

They bundled up against the elements and quickly walked to the cafe, thankful for the warmth inside when they arrived. They enjoyed a nice lunch light lunch; with the upcoming flight neither wanted a heavy meal. Kate rambled the entire time at the cafe, a sure sign of her nerves.

"We better get out of here, its 1:15 and the car should be here soon." He paid the cashier and they walked quickly back to the loft. When they arrived the car was already waiting for them.

The driver came up to the loft to help Castle with the luggage, she took a final check around to see if she was forgetting anything and then they headed off to the airport. They rode in an anxious silence.

After checking in at the ticket counter, getting through the long security process and stopping for some more coffee, they were finally at their gate. Kate was standing, staring out the window into the distance.

"Everything ok?" He asked.

"Yes, I just can't believe all of this is real. So much has changed in the past year, and now I am ready to board a flight, with you, of all people," he feigned a hurt heart, as she smiled softly. "I mean Italy, with you, first class everything. I just don't know how I deserve all of this."

"Katherine Beckett, now you stop. You are deserving of so much more than this. You are the strongest, sweetest, most genuine person I know; especially now that you aren't running and hiding from me. I know that the whole 'first class all the way' bothers you and that you still don't like that I pay for things. But, I want to treat you right; if my mother taught me anything it was to treat a woman well."

She leaned into him, not sure what to say, when they heard their number called for boarding. He picked up both of their carry-ons, and followed her to the gate.

The flight was uneventful. After watching an in flight movie together in the beginning, Castle pulled out his laptop. He had spent much of the remaining flight writing. Kate napped and listened to her ipod while watching him write. She marveled at how the music she was listening to really did make sense. She had told him that once, when he asked how to know if you were in love. It had been something her mom had always said, but something she wasn't sure she believed. After all, she had been involved seriously with several men and the songs hadn't really made sense then. But, now that she and Rick were together, the songs really did make sense, all of them did. It was as though someone had reached into her heart and pulled out all of the feelings she couldn't put into words.

Periodically, Rick would look to Kate and see tears in her eyes. He considered asking her about it, but since she had tried hiding it, he figured she wasn't ready to talk about whatever was running through her mind.

When they landed, it was six-thirty in the morning in Rome, which would have been half past midnight in New York time. They decided to find the hotel before heading out to breakfast. Rick knew from prior experience that if they went to the hotel and crashed now, the jet lag would be all that much worse.

He had already held a rental car, so after they made their way to the rental agency and completed paperwork, they headed out to the car. Of course, awaiting them was a red Ferrari that matched his own back home.

"Seriously?" She had to ask.

"Would you expect anything less?" He countered.

"No, I suppose not." She said, have laugh, half frustration.

They headed to the car, Rick had their bags sent to the hotel, and since it was obvious they would not fit into the car.

"You do know that it is far too cold at this time of morning for the top to be down?"

"I know that, I'll reserve that for when we cruise later in the day."

He drove off toward their hotel, following the directions from the GPS. When the pulled up, Kate was taken aback. She knew he would go all out, but she didn't even know what that meant, until now. They were staying at the Parco dei Principi. From the moment they walked into the lobby, Kate was rendered speechless.

"Richard Castle. I have reserved the Royal Suite?" He said as he approached the front desk.

"Why, yes, Mr. Castle. I trust you had a good flight, sir?

"Yes, we did."

"Your room is ready for you. Signora Conti will escort you to your suite. We do hope you enjoy your stay and let us know if we can do anything to make your stay more comfortable."

Rick and Kate followed Signora Conti to the elevator, and on up to the top floor. She led them to a set of double doors, unlocked the room and gave them the key. Their luggage had already been placed in their room.

"Gratzi!" Rick said as he tipped Signora Conti.

Kate's breath was taken away. The view from the floor to ceiling windows was stunning. They could see across much of Rome, she couldn't wait to see the view at night.

Inside, the room looked like an old world palace. "Rick, this is amazing. I can't...even..."

He could see that she was at a loss for words. "You deserve nothing less than the best Kate." He kissed her, bringing her out of the shock.

He led her to the sofa, and went to the bar to retrieve the bottle of champagne he had ordered, and the crystal champagne flutes. He poured both of them a glass and held hers out to her. "Now, I realize it is early here, but since we haven't slept yet, I think we can get by with drinking this early in the morning. To us?"

"Always." She replied but wasn't there. She was lost in the luxury of her surroundings. She set the glass down and walked around the suite, touching every piece of linen, each marble tabletop, each exquisite detail. "Rick? You know how I've always said that all this first class, five star stuff wasn't my thing?"

"Yes?" He said, grinning for he knew what she was about to say.

"Well, I think I may have to amend my opinion on it."

He stood and walked over to her, coming up from behind and wrapping his arms around her waist. He nibbled her neck. "I'm glad to see you are coming around to the idea."

After a quick breakfast at a small cafe style restaurant, they headed out for a walk around the area, in which they scouted shopping and restaurant options. They browsed through many shops, buying a few gifts for Alexis. They decided not to return to the hotel and crash. Kate was used to having to be up late to work a case, and as her sidekick, Castle was used to long hours as well. They would keep busy and crash early that night, hopefully keeping jet lag at bay.

They did return to the hotel in the late afternoon. Kate headed straight to the bathroom while Castle collapsed on the couch, leaning his head all the way back and closing his eyes for a moment. That moment must have lasted slightly longer than he thought, because the next thing he knew, Kate had walked up behind him, leaned over and was placing gentle kisses along his neck and jawline. He smiled, not opening his eyes. "Mmmmm," was only response.

"Sooo, it's still too early to go to sleep and a little too early for dinner, whatever shall we do with the time?" She had pulled out her most sultry voice and watched the effect of the voice and words play across his face.

"Well, I think I can manage to find something to occupy our time." As he spoke, slowly drawing out each word, he slipped his hands up her arms. Once he saw her smile in response to his statement, he pulled her down over the couch. She was caught completely off guard and what could have been a semi graceful move, actually resulted in her kicking a vase off the coffee table, shattering it on the floor in the process.

"Oops," she said, the two of them laughing.

"If you keep breaking things around here..."

"Shut up, Castle." As she covered his mouth with hers. Neither of them had realized how little body contact they had since leaving New York, and their bodies reacted to the sudden sensations. They moved their soiree to the bedroom and let their passion explode until they were both too exhausted to move.

Neither knew how much time had passed. They had that effect on one another. "Hungry?" He asked.

"Yep." She answered; neither of them making even the slightest movement.

"Want to go out?" He asked hoping that she wanted to stay in. He was tired, and knew she was as well.

"Nope."

"Room service?" They asked each other in unison.

Castle went to the phone and ordered a gourmet pizza and a bottle of the best red wine in the hotel. About twenty minutes later there was a knock on the door and Castle got up to answer it. He paid and tipped the attendant for their food and wine, then brought it to the dining table. He went back over to where Kate was laying on the bed and kissed her awake.

"Hey sleepy head, time to eat."

"I wasn't sleeping..."

"Right, so, the whole eyes closed and slight snoring would never lead someone to think you were asleep."

"Just give me some pizza a wine and hush up!" These playful retorts were a foundational part of their relationship. Kate's mom had always told her to find a man that could make her laugh, and she had certainly done that.

She plated pizza for both of them while Rick poured each a glass of wine. They met on the couch and turned on the TV. They watched an Italian film and since, neither spoke much Italian, made up dialogue to go with the scenes. As the movie came to an end, so had their ability to stay awake.

"So, I know you said no itinerary, but I would like to have a general idea of what you might want to do today."

"Let's head to the Forum and the Coliseum?"

They headed off to discover Ancient Rome. They walked around the Roman Forum, in awe of the ancient ruins still in place. Castle spun story after story of things that could have happened at various point within the plaza. She loved spending this time with him, where they could both just be happy in each other's presence and not have to worry about who saw them.

They spent the morning and early afternoon touring the Forum and the Coliseum. They found a little cafe in which to have lunch, and spent the rest of the day walking the streets of Rome. As the evening began to cool, Rick caught sight of Kate shivering slightly. He called a cab and the headed back to the hotel.

Once in their room, Rick came up to nuzzle his nose into the back of her neck. "I'd like to take you out to a fancy place tonight, if that works for you?"

"How fancy? You know..."

"Please, just let me treat you. Why don't you slip into that deep purple dress you bought the other day?"

She knew he had really loved that one on her. She went into the bathroom and prepped for the evening. She decided on a shower, it would help wake her up and would help her tame the wild hair. After she got out of the shower, she dried and curled her hair and applied fresh makeup, then slipped into the dress.

"You look fabulous," Rick said as he came up to her, resting a hand on her hip as he placed a kiss to her lips.

"You don't look so bad yourself, Rick." He always looked hot in a tux.

They left the hotel arm in arm, their car was waiting out front, courtesy of the valet.

"This place looks nice."

"I asked the concierge to find the best. It looks like he came through."

"Richard Castle for two." He said to the host.

"Ahhh, Mr. Castle, right this way."

They were taken to a small table in the corner of the restaurant. The restaurant was so elegant. The room was lit only by candlelight. The tables were spaced far from each other, lending itself to a much more intimate scene.

A bottle of very fine wine was waiting at their table. The waiter poured each of them a glass of wine and indicated that he would return shortly. They both gazed at the menu, well, Rick pretended to, he only had eyes for her tonight. He watched her chew her lip as she tried to read through the Italian menu, a nervous habit that he adored.

"How about we just order the special?"

"Works, for me, I'm not sure what any of this says." She put down the menu and picked up her glass. "To us?"

"Always," came his reply, an endearing smile on his lips.

"Cas...Rick," she still slipped up every now and then. "This whole experience is so amazing."

"You're amazing Kate," he said without a moment's hesitation.

She blushed, still unused to his constant flattery. "I really appreciate all of this, but you know that you didn't have to go 'five star all the way'?"

"Please, let's just enjoy it. I promise that after this trip, I will try to limit the extravagance, but for now, this is my treat for you, for us really." They both sipped their wine and when the waiter approached Rick ordered the house special.

"Did you get a lot of writing done on the flight?" She knew that she needed to take the conversation to a different place.

"I did, I doubt I will need to do much until the flight home. I may have you read through some of it, give me your opinion?"

He had never asked her to read his work until it was complete. She was so honored that he had asked. "I'd love to Rick, I'm honored at the invitation."

"There's no one I trust more. What about you? Did you enjoy listening to your music on the flight? I've never known you to listen to that much music before."

She could tell by the look in his eye that he must have caught the tears in her eyes earlier in the day. "Um...yeah, it was ...enlightening." No sooner were the words out, the waiter approached with their meal.

"How so?" Rick asked as he covered his lap with the napkin and picked up his fork to dig in.

"Do you remember last year when Alexis kept asking you about how she would know when she was in love?"

"How could I forget, beginning of the end of my little girl." Kate rolled her eyes.

"It is not the end...anyway, do you remember what I told you when you asked me the same question?"

"Of course, all of the songs make sense." _Did she really think he could forget that moment? _

"Well, as I sat on that plane, listening to song after song, I realized that for the first time in my life they made sense. Every one of them. I could actually feel the pains from the breakups; feel the joy in the sappy songs. I mean, I felt them...physically."

"Kate," he didn't know what to say.

"Rick, the songs have _never_made sense to me. My mom told me that line when I was sixteen and dating my first boyfriend. I've repeated it a few times, but never really believed it. I had been in love before, a few times, and even then, the songs just seemed ridiculous to me." As she was talking, Rick rose from his seat and knelt next to her. Wiping the single tear from her eye. He pulled her into a hug. "It all makes sense now." She whispered, affirming it more for herself than for him.

"That's a good thing Kate, that's a really good thing." He kissed her on the forehead and returned to his seat, but held her hand from across the table.

They continued eating in silence. "Would you care for dessert this fine evening?" The waiter asked in very heavily accented English.

Kate looked at him and he could see it in her eyes. He was getting dessert all right, but not from here. "No, thank you though, Vincenzo." They left a short time later, heading back to the hotel for some dessert.

The next two days passed in a blur. They spent days touring all of the most famous sites in Rome. The evenings were spent looking through the shops and finding all of the best places to eat. The nights, well there was much more than sleeping going on.

By day five, Kate started was feeling a bit restless. She loved Rick, she really did, but she was feeling the need to have space. They were together all day and night back home, but there was a distinct difference. When she put on the badge, she was more than Rick Castle's girlfriend; she was Detective Kate Beckett. Here, she didn't have any other identity.

"Hey, I was thinking of heading out this morning alone?"

He knew that tone all too well. "Sure, did you want to meet up for lunch later of have the whole day?"

"How about if I call you?"

"That works." He would offer her some cash but that wouldn't be the right thing to do right now. She needed time to feel independent. "Have fun, Kate. I love you." He gave her a chaste kiss to the lips and she left.

It was a pleasant day, the sun was shining and while the temperature was still somewhat cool, the sun against her skin made up for it. She strolled up and down the streets of Rome taking in the culture. She didn't understand much of what was being said near her, but she loved the way it sounded.

She found her way into an old library. Now this was a place she could feel at home. She browsed through the sections, touching each book as she passed. She loved the feel of an old book, the sense of history it contained. Books had been her hiding place off and on throughout her life. She walked the aisles for a couple of hours, before leaving. She had never stopped to really read anything, although she had opened several very old, worn books to feel the history come alive within the pages.

As she strode down the nearly deserted street, she suddenly felt uncomfortable. She felt the eyes on her, felt like she was being watched. She looked around and saw nothing out of order. Her hand went to her side on its own accord searching for the gun that was not there.

And just like that she was grabbed from behind, a gun pressed into her back. She regained her calm immediately, going into full police mode.

"Consider this your warning, and your only warning. Back off now, the Dragon is watching. You never should have followed him here."

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><p>Please review, I've lost steam lately, maybe the reviews will help! :)<p> 


	15. Chapter 15: Protection

A/N: Sorry the updates have taken longer lately. I really was stumped for a while, felt like I had written myself into a corner. I think I am past that point, and hopefully the story flows still. Thanks for all of the great reviews and the alerts.

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><p>Chapter 15: Protection<p>

She didn't respond, the words had yet to sink in. She was pistol whipped across the back of her head. When she regained her consciousness, she awoke lying on the ground of an alley; the irony didn't escape her. She walked around the corner and found a little coffee shop. Luckily there was a customer who translated helped her to call for a cab.

"Hey, there," Rick had heard her enter the room and had leaned over to set his laptop down, then turned to her. "Oh my God, Kate! Are you all right? What happened?" He was tripping over his own feet trying to get to her. She was a mess. Her face was dirty, her clothes disheveled, her hair matted with blood. "Kate you're bleeding!"

She couldn't respond, the words he had said kept echoing in her mind.

"Kate," he waited for her eyes to drift to his. "What happened?"

She began slowly, the words tumbling from her lips quietly. "I was just leaving a library, walking down this quiet street. Next thing I know there is a gun in my back." She pauses, not wanting to say the next part of the story, but not able to hide it from Rick either. "He says 'Consider this your warning, and your only warning. Back off now, the Dragon is watching. You never should have followed him here.' He pistol whipped me and everything went black. I woke up in an alley."

"Oh my God, Kate." He just held her, grateful that nothing worse had happened. "Let's get you cleaned up. That's quite a nasty gash, you may need some stitches."

"No, please. No stitches." He walked with her to the bathroom, helped her get into the shower and began to help her clean the wound.

Once she was cleaned up, she managed to come out of her shock a little, her hard Detective persona returning. She was mad at herself for letting this get to her. She would have expected something like this in New York. She's a Detective; she's been held at gunpoint before and has never freaked out like this. This was all just so unexpected.

_Consider this your warning, and your only warning. Back off now, the Dragon is watching. You never should have followed him here._

Suddenly the meaning of the words shot through her. "Castle, you know what this means?"

He wasn't following her at all. "Um, no, I'm not following you."

"'Consider this your warning, and your only warning. Back off now, the Dragon is watching. You never should have followed him here.' Castle, that just opened up a whole new door in this case. He is here; he thinks we followed him here. New leads." And just like that his Kate was gone. Detective Beckett had come back full force.

He was slowly catching on to what she was saying. She already had her phone out and was dialing Esposito.

"Hey...yes, we are having a good time. I called to ask for a favor." She recited the story to him. "That means that there is probably a record of him on a flight here...yes, I'm sure that many flights head to Rome every day, but he was on one. Pull a list from the previous week to my flight. See if there are any connections to anything from my mom's case. This guy wouldn't fly coach, so only check first class. Call me if anything pops."

Rick sighed; he recognized the look in her eyes. The look of her falling back into the rabbit hole of her mother's case. "Kate, I...we...this..." he couldn't seem to form a coherent sentence.

"Look, I know what you are going to say. I'm not going to let this ruin our trip. I won't dive back in until we are back in New York." He heard her words, but he knew her look was far more accurate and her look said she had already jumped in.

"You know this is going to change our plans. How are we going to enjoy this trip if we have to look over our shoulders the whole way?"

She wasn't sure of the answer, she felt sucker-punched. Her head was throbbing. "I think I want to lay down for a bit. Do we have an aspirin?"

"I don't think so, but I'll call down to the concierge and have some brought up. No sleeping for you though. It's clear you have a concussion and we both know sleeping is not good."

"Ok, well, I at least want to lie down." She walked over to the couch and laid down on it. He made the call for the aspirin and then came to sir in the chair beside her.

She closed her eyes, but he could tell that she wasn't sleeping. She was stewing. Wondering just how this fit into the puzzle of her mother's murder. "Ok, so the Dragon is in Italy and knew you were here too. We've already established that we are talking major money and power. I doubt he came on a commercial flight. He probably came on a corporate jet or for all we know a government flight." He knew this was the only thing he could do right now, help her work through and sort this out and hope to salvage at least some of their trip. "Look, I don't like how easily he found you, and I am sure he knows where we are staying. If he comes here, we have nothing. You don't even have your weapon." Her eyes shot open, she had gone for her weapon when the gun was to her back out of instinct, but it hadn't occurred to her since that moment that she was unarmed.

He saw the look cross her face, the vulnerability she was feeling in that moment. "Let me make a few calls. Stay here and rest, but no sleeping, promise me, no sleeping?"

"I promise." He left to the bedroom to make the calls. He heard a knock at the door, and came to the door of the bedroom to watch as Kate walked to the door of the room, looking through the peephole. She opened the door, pulled some money from her pocket to tip the attendant and closed the door, locking all of the locks available.

He returned to the room about twenty minutes later, Kate was still lying on the couch; her eyes opened but glazed over deep in thought. "Ok, I made a few calls. A friend of one of my security guys back home moved here a while back. He is going to hook us up with some extra security. I have also alerted the hotel staff and they were going to call in some extra people as well. I also have a guy on his way over. He'll call when he arrives so that we know he is here, but he is going to bring us some extra security."

Before she even had the time to question him, his phone rang, a knock came at the door at the same time. He went to the door, looked out, verifying that the knock was coming from his guy, and let him in.

"Kate, meet Jack. Jack, my...uh...Kate" He still wasn't sure how to address her. "Detective Kate Beckett of the NYPD."

"Rick tells me that you are in need of some security?"

"Um, yes?" She said looking back to Rick, not completely sure of what he was doing.

He placed the rather large briefcase he was carrying down onto the table, opening it as he did so. Now Kate got it.

"Take your pick Kate, whatever one you want, it's yours." Castle encouraged. She was surprised by how many handguns he had fit in the case. She looked to him with a question in his eye. "Look, I know you need to have this to feel safe and more in control. Given what happened today..."

She eyed a couple of the pieces. Pull out three or four to feel them in her hand, aim them, see which called to her. She had a flashback to reading the Harry Potter series, hey; she had to know what all of the fuss was about, right? She thought back to the scene in which the wand maker explained to Harry that the wand chooses the wizard; guns were much the same. True, she could fire any weapon if she had to, but she and her gun had a type of...relationship. That was the best word she could think of to describe it. She almost felt like she was betraying it by looking at other weapons. But, given the circumstances, she knew that this was a necessary precaution.

She finally decided on Glock 22, similar enough to what she is used to. "Excellent choice. Mr. Castle, did you want one too?"

"That's not a bad idea Rick. You're a good shot, might be best given...here, try this one." She hands him the M&P9c. He's no gun expert. Sure he's shot plenty, and spent days with her at the shooting range, but he doesn't know as much as he should to be able to make this kind of decision.

"Sure, it feels about right."

"Rick, point it, act like you are going to shoot, does it feel right?" Kate asks an edge to her voice that he can't quite place.

After doing as she suggested, he decides it would be a good model. He goes to the in suite safe to retrieve some cash and shells out the $1700 for the weapons and ammo.

They both thank Jack for his help and he heads out.

"You know..."

He saw the look in her eyes and had to stop her. "Don't Kate; I don't want any arguments about any of this. You needed the gun, I agree it's a good idea if I have one as well, and the money is so not an issue, so don't even try going down that road."

"Shhh, I wasn't going there, I was just going to thank you. And apologize for this ordeal ruining our trip." Her face fell.

"Kate, it's alright, we'll get through this, we always do." His voice was slightly less than convincing. He doesn't want to ask the next question, but he knows he needs to. "Do you want to go home?"

"No. No Rick, I most certainly don't want to go home. If we leave now, we look like we did follow him. No, I think we need to continue on as if nothing has happened. We are now both armed, you've got people tailing us. We'll be fine." Kate knew that he didn't agree

"Let's just play it by ear."

Castle was very much on edge for the rest of the night, as was she. There was a tense silence until he excused himself to make a few more phone calls. Not twenty minutes after he went to the bedroom to make the calls, there was a knock on the door. Kate grabbed her new weapon and walked to the door, looking out. She recognized the uniform the man was wearing as one of the hotel staff, but she couldn't be certain since they hadn't ordered anything. "Castle?" He poked his head out of the bedroom door. "Did you order something..."

"Oh, yeah, sorry. Go ahead, I did order it."

She opened the door to find a cart with various lighter food items- grapes, cheese, bread, as well as an assortment of other items. Then, there was also a wrapped package. She left it there until Rick came back out.

"That was quick. Did you open your gift yet?"

"No, I wasn't sure..."

"Go ahead," he said. She had seen this look on his face before, back at Christmas. It was the look of a child trying to please with a gift given from the heart.

She opened the package and found a scrabble board. "How did...How did you?"

"I called the concierge. Never underestimate the power of a good concierge. I would have thought that LA had taught you that." He was grinning because he knew she liked the gift.

"I don't know how you always manage to do the exact thing that I need you to do."

"I just figured that going out probably wasn't the best of ideas but we were both going to go stir crazy sitting around here all night."

"You are right, let's play?" She loved to play him. They were fairly equally matched and through a lot of skill and a little luck, she managed to beat him half of the time. Of course, that means that he beats her the other half of the time.

They spent the next several hours playing and nibbling on the food that had been sent up. They decided to turn in a little earlier than they had. Neither of them was in the mood for any of the fun they had had during the previous nights.

Kate had her head on Rick's chest, and his arm was wrapped around her shoulders, pulling her in tightly.

Kate was the first to break the silence. "I can't believe that this just follows me no matter what. I had tried so hard for the past several months to put this behind me."

"I know you did." He kissed the top of her head, keeping his lips close.

"I just don't get it. Why do they think we have traced them here."

"I don't know, but it has to mean that we unintentionally got close, really close," Rick ended his statement with another kiss to her head. He wasn't sure if this was to reassure her or himself.

"She sat bolt upright. "Why didn't I think of that before?" She asked of herself aloud as she retrieved her phone from the bedside table.

"What are you doing?" He asked not too pleased that she had left his side.

"I am texting Esposito. We had to have crossed paths with the Dragon while we were here. How else would he know? I'm sending Esposito an itinerary of what we've done since we've been here. He needs to cross reference the hotel customers with the list of those leaving New York shortly before we left."

"Good call. You don't think they are staying in the hotel..." This was something he hadn't yet considered. "You're right; he had to have seen us at some point."

Kate sent the text and waited for a reply.

"What'd he say?" Rick asked when he heard the incoming message sound coming from her phone.

"He said they would check into it."

She laid back down against his chest. They both laid, staring into space until neither of them could keep their eyes open any longer, which took hours.

They ended up sleeping much later than either of them would have thought. In fact, it was 11:30 when Kate's phone began to ring.

"It's just Lanie. I'll call her back after while." She said groggily without even opening her eyes.

The ringing stopped as the call went to voicemail. Not a minute later, the ringing resumed with the same ring tone. "I don't think she is going to let you ignore her," Rick said, half asleep.

"What do you want Lanie, and this better be good, you woke me up!"

"What?" She half screamed sitting bolt upright. "What the...are you kidding me? Where did you get that idea?"

"Well don't you think I would have called you?"

"Of course I would call you. I don't know, let me talk to Rick and I'll get back to you."

Rick had been listening to Kate's side of the conversation when it hit him, he know what Lanie must have called about. And here it came, the glare. Yep, he knew exactly what that conversation was about.

"Lanie said that there was an interesting story on page six this morning. In fact it was a huge spread encompassing the entire page."

"Um...yah, about that..."

"About that? What exactly do you me by 'about that'? You knew?"

"Yeah, well, it is sort of my fault it's out there."

"WHAT?"

Oh no, she was ticked, REALLY ticked. "Ok, settle down," he said, pulling her closer. "I set up the story. It was one of the calls I made yesterday."

"You told them we were engaged?"

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><p>Please leave some comments :)<p> 


	16. Chapter 16: Moving On

Sorry about the delay of posting this. I'm thinking this may be the last chapter? Tell me what you think. I feel like the story lost steam.

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><p>CHAPTER 16- Moving On<p>

"Um, yeah, I did." This was not going well. He knew Kate would be irritated and he had planned to tell her, but the right moment never came along last night. He was going to try again this morning, but obviously, they slept too late and Lanie saw it first. "Don't get mad at me, Kate." He could see the look in her eye; the anger boiling to the surface.

"Don't get mad at you? Are you kidding me? You just told all of New York that we were engaged and we aren't! I can't believe you did this! Do you have any idea what a mess this is going to be when we get back? I can't believe you!"

"I know, but it's not like that. In fact, _you_gave me the idea."

"I gave you the idea? _I gave you the idea? _Really Castle, that's the best you have?" Geez, she only called him Castle in THAT tone when she was really pissed off.

"You said that we needed the Dragon to realize we weren't here for him. So I thought it might help if he thought that we were really here for a romantic vacation, which we are. But he couldn't know that, unless it was a vacation in which we got engaged." He knew he didn't sound convincing. Heck, he wasn't even convincing himself.

She took a deep breath, trying her best to calm down. "How did they get a picture of us together in front of the Coliseum with me wearing a ring? How did they get a close up of the ring? I don't even wear a ring!"

"Well..." He was in so much trouble, what was a little more, right? "I sent the picture of us that the nice couple took of us the other day."

"But I wasn't wearing a ring."

"No, but I have a buddy..."

"Oh wait, let me guess...a buddy who photoshopped it in?"

"Yes," he sheepishly admitted.

"And this ring...?"

"Well, I was going to talk to you about all of this, but we ended up sleeping late and Lanie apparently got up way too early and managed to read the paper, before, what is it like 5:30 in the morning there?"

"Caaastlle..." She hissed.

"Right, back on point. Anyway..." He sighed deeply. This was not what he had pictured. He sat up in bed next to her. "Wait a minute," he said as he got up and walked into the bathroom.

It was probably a good idea for him to give her a little space. She was ready to rip his head off. Kate sat on the bed seething.

He returned, hoping that he had given her a minute to calm down before he told her the rest. He sat back on the bed in front of Kate. "This is not how I had this planned at all, but given..."

"Out with it Castle!" She was fed up, how dare he toy with her in the media; she did have a reputation to uphold. How was this all going to play out when they got home and announced that they weren't the happily engaged couple in the photos?

"Kate, I've had this trip planned in my mind for months. I wanted to bring you here and give you the best three weeks of your life. We could spend time with just each other, none of the hassles of real life. Soak up the romance of Italy." Ok, he must have chosen his words well because he could see the anger begin to very slowly melt away. He realized he was starting to ramble and knew that the anger would not continue to melt if he rambled on too long. "Kate, I love you."

"I know you do, and I love you too." Her tone had softened considerably, but he could still hear the hard edge to it.

"The past few months with you have been nothing short of wonderful. I've never been so happy. I don't want that to end."

"It's not going to end, Rick." Her patience was waning.

"Shh!" He teasingly said to her. "The when, the where, and the how are all wrong, but the why is what is important and no matter the circumstances, the why isn't going to change."

"Castle...?" She asked softly, not sure of where this was leading, but beginning to wonder.

"Sorry...rambling...I know." He takes a deep breath. "Kate? I love you, more than I have ever loved any other woman. As cliché as it sounds, you have completed me." She rolled her eyes at the cheesy movie line, but she knew what he meant. As cheesy as it sounded, it was very fitting to their situation. "I want nothing more than to spend every day of my life with you. Kate, will you marry me?" He pulled a box from his pajama pocket, opening the box to display the ring he had picked out for her weeks ago.

At first she just stared at him.

"Kate?" He said after a minute of her staring at him had passed. She brushed a tear from her eye. She couldn't lie; she had contemplated their future together more than a few times. She had even wondered if this trip was a setup for him to propose, but this was not what she had pictured. He was the type of guy who would go all out and make a big spectacle of it. He had once tossed some ideas around to Ryan back when he was planning to propose to Jenny. This was completely nontraditional, low key, and sweet.

"Rick..." She paused and saw how her hesitation had cause Rick's face to fall. "Yes." Her answer was simple and short. A part of her felt like he deserved a little speech, but words were failing her. He placed the ring on her finger and pulled her in to a hug. He could feel her tears soaking through his shirt and kissed the top of her head.

"I love you so much, Kate."

"I love you too, Rick. I always have, even when I tried so hard not to. I've been in love with you for so long."

He gently pulled her chin up so that he could look into her eyes. She could see so many emotions play through those eyes; love, admiration, respect, and there it was, the lust. He leaned in to kiss her, gently at first, then deeper.

No sooner had they kissed than their phones both started ringing. They spent the next few hours fielding phone calls of congratulations before heading out to an early dinner.

"Would you calm down?"

"I just can't relax," she sighed.

Her hyper-vigilance since leaving the hotel had quickly gotten on his nerves. She had been short with him, was constantly looking over her shoulder and was very much on edge. She didn't like feeling vulnerable and her response to that emotion was a steely anger.

This trip was no turning out the way he had planned. He had wanted a relaxing, romantic time for both of them. She was clearly not relaxed and therefore romance was long gone. He knew her well enough to know that things would not improve with time. When she was in this type of mode, the only thing that helped was information and she couldn't get much of that here. "I think we need to reconsider things," he said to Kate as they waited for their drinks to arrive at the table.

"What do you mean?"  
>"I just think we might want to consider heading back home. Maybe not back to the loft, but at least back to the states. We can stay at the Hamptons for a while. At least there we are on our own turf. Here we don't know anyone and with this guy out to get you, I would just like to head back where we have some support."<p>

"Rick, what more support do we need? You have a private security guy following us, more security at the hotel and we are both armed. I'm pretty sure we have all the support we need."

"Ok, yeah, we have those things, but are you really going to try to convince me that you wouldn't feel more comfortable back in New York where you have the guys to back us up. Where we know our way around. Where we know the ins and outs? If we have to shoot someone here we may very well end up in a long legal battle that neither of us wants to deal with. You are a nervous wreck, and a cranky one to boot." Oh if looks could kill...her glare would have done him in.

She sat there thinking about it. As much as she hated to admit it, she would feel much more comfortable back home. The stakes here were too high.

"Rick, you have planned this trip for a while, I'm not going to let this _issue_ruin our time together."

"Look, we can have time together anywhere. I wanted this trip to be memorable, and right now, we aren't making the kind of memories I was hoping for. We don't have to leave forever, we can come back once things settle down."

"But you've spent..."

"Don't even go there," he interrupted. "You know that is the LAST thing on my mind."

"I know." She really had no other arguments. She knew he was right, but a part of her felt like if they left, she was letting the bad guy win, yet again. "I just don't want to let them win," her voice sounded defeated.

"They aren't winning Kate, we are. They took your life away for far too long and now you are finally living it again. This is one battle, Kate."

Her mind shot back to her conversation with Montgomery. _ "There are no victories. There's only the battle. And the best that you can hope for is to find someplace where you can make your stand."_

"Ok, you're right." She conceded this battle, for she knew there would be more to come.

"I love you. When we get back to the hotel, I will make arrangements for us to catch the next flight home."

Kate was quiet the rest of the evening. She had looked so forward to this trip and now it was over. She took comfort in knowing that Rick would stay true to his word and that they would come back and finish this vacation. Now she began to pack things up so that they could leave as soon as possible.

They caught an early morning flight back to New York. They had been at the airport extra early to check their secured weapons with the other luggage. Kate knew from experience that it would take extra time. They may not be in the States, but international flights going back into America were just as strict as domestic flights. While Rick managed to sleep most of the flight back, Kate had not. She had spent the past few hours reflecting on everything.

Once she saw him stirring she decided to tell him what she had concluded during the past few hours. "Rick, I'll make this up to you."

"What are you talking about?" It was clear to him that she had been stewing about something for a while now, but he was still too groggy to understand.

"The trip."

"Kate, you have nothing to make up to me."

"Well, it's my fault that we are even..."

"No," he said harshly, turning in his seat to look her in the eyes. "This is NOT your fault. None of this has EVER been YOUR fault. You are the victim in all of this." She looked at him and he could see it in her eyes. She was dangerously close to spiraling out of control. "Katherine Beckett, I love you and believe me when I say I will move heaven and earth to bring you closure. You may have been a lone soldier in this fight for a long time, but you have a partner in this. We will get past this."

"I just want it to be over, Rick. Do you know that for the past few months, I have hardly even thought about the case? That has never happened. I was happy." She saw his face fall at the past tense usage of the word. "I AM happy," she corrected.

"What are you saying?" He could hear something in her voice that he hadn't heard before.

"I want to put this in the past. I am tired of the chase. I am tired of seeing the people I care about most die. I want to be happy, I want to be carefree, I want to live again. I'm not sure I even know what that means anymore, but I was starting to figure that out."

He didn't know what to say. It was rare for Kate to open up like this, especially in a semi-public place like and airplane. He looked around, but could see that the few other first class passengers were all preoccupied. "When you say you want to put this in the past..." He wanted this point clarified.

"You were right, we can't win this. I've been fighting a losing battle all along. I let the battle take nearly everyone from me. I even let it take _ME_ away from me, but I won't let it claim the rest." She paused, and he waited, he knew she had more to say. "I can't lose what we have Rick. As much as it ripped my world apart when I lost my mom, losing you, losing what we have, it would _end_my world." She leaned in to kiss him, tears running down her face. "When we land, I'm going to call Ryan and Esposito, tell them to stop. It's over Castle, I'm done, I'm really done."

He had no words for her. He pulled her head to rest on his chest, stroked her hair, and gently placed kisses on her head. Tears rolled down his face, she had finally let go of the past. She was truly all in.

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><p>I'd love to know your thoughts on this chapter and on whether I should end it here.<p>

Thanks for all of the reviews and all of the alerts!


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